Advanced Tactical Trainer
18 October 2021
The US Air Force (USAF) is seeking a new advanced tactical trainer, with a request for information (RFI) for at least 100 aircraft issued on 12 October.
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USAF seeks new Advanced Tactical Trainer aircraft
The US Air Force (USAF) is seeking a new advanced tactical trainer, with a request for information (RFI) for at least 100 aircraft issued on 12 October.
The Advanced Tactical Trainer (ATT) RFI posted on the sam.gov US government procurement website calls for an aircraft that can perform three main functions: provide initial tactical training; provide ‘red air' adversary air-to-air and air-to-ground training; and serve as a surrogate of existing and future tactical fighter aircraft in the USAF inventory. According to the RFI, the USAF plans to buy at least 100 aircraft, with subsequent lots of 50 aircraft.
Required specifications issued by the USAF note that the proposed ATT aircraft should be a tandem twin-seat design, with the option for a single-seat variant that allows for an unspecified alternate use of the rear seat, an open architecture avionics suite with large-area cockpit displays that can replicate the displays and systems of front-line aircraft, helmet-mounted display systems, hands-on throttle and stick pilot controls, single pylons under each wing that can carry weapons, fuel tanks, and/or electronic warfare/attack pods. Performance attributes include a high subsonic (Mach 0.9) top speed at 10,000 ft, a service ceiling of 45,000 ft, +7.5 g (sustained 6 g) structural limit, and a 90-minute endurance (including 30 minutes of tactical manoeuvring).
Responses to the RFI are due by 23 November, although no timeline was provided for an anticipated contract date or entry into service.
26 October 2021
General Mark Kelly, Air Combat Command (ACC) chief, and an important US Air Force (USAF) officer, anticipates requirements for a possible new Advanced Tactical Trainer...
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US Air Force expects new requirements for Advanced Tactical Trainer
General Mark Kelly, Air Combat Command (ACC) chief, and an important US Air Force (USAF) officer, anticipates requirements for a possible new Advanced Tactical Trainer (ATT) that were not requested for the service's Boeing-Saab T-7A Red Hawk advanced jet trainer, which is in development.
Gen Kelly said on 25 October that he expects an increased demand for sensor capability, whether that is for a small radar or a small jammer. He also anticipates an increased fuel requirement for mission duration and afterburner use, and a nascent small weapons computing capability for at least deploying a Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared air-to-air missile capability.
Gen Kelly also said that the new ATT could require some simulation playback that has real, simulated, or constructed threat awareness. But he has not ruled the T-7A out of any consideration for a possible new tactical trainer.
“(The T-7A) may be able to fill most of our (ATT) needs,” Gen Kelly said during a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. “But the difference between going from training to fighter training will unambiguously generate a size, weight, and power requirement.”
This new ATT would support three training tasks: provide initial tactical training and adversary air support while serving as a tactical fighter surrogate of existing and future USAF front-line fighters. Responses to the ATT request for information (RFI) are due on 23 November. Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Janes