Tony Gill/WASHINGTON DC
AFTER PAINSTAKING preparation, the US Air Force is in the final stages of selecting a contractor to upgrade its Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic trainers. Six teams are competing for a programme expected to be worth around $700 million, and which will extend the life of the T-38 (first flown in 1959) to at least 2020.
The goal of the T-38 avionics upgrade (AUP) programme is to create a cockpit suitable for training pilots to fly 21st-century combat aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter. The winning team will receive three separate contracts for:
the upgrade of 425 T-38s and acquisition of new aircrew-training devices (ATDs);
logistic support of digital avionics;
logistic support of existing T-38 simulators and their replacement ATDs.
The USAF has kept the T-38 relatively healthy structurally. The Pacer Classic modification programme, begun in 1984 and continuing today, is extending the aircraft's service life to at least 2020. The programme includes rewinging and wing-spar reinforcement, replacement of dorsal longerons, flight controls, wheels and brakes, and retrofit of a bird-resistant windshield. Other continuing and future Pacer Classic upgrades include a new canopy, updates to the General Electric J85 engines, ejection-seat replacement and more wing enhancements.
The AUP request for proposals (RFP) was issued in December 1995. Eight teams responded in February 1996, two of which were later eliminated by the USAF. Award of a 36-month development contract was expected in early July, but, in late May, the USAF instructed the surviving six teams to submit revised bids, following the elimination of funding for 1998. The six-year programme will now start in 1999, ending in 2005.
The USAF is expected to request best-and-final offers after mid-June, with contract award delayed until mid-July. The winning team must deliver two upgraded aircraft, one operational flight-trainer and one unit training-device by May 1999. The contract will include production options to update up to 425 aircraft, plus options to modify additional US and foreign-operated T-38s, taking the potential total to more than 500.
US forces possess almost 620 T-38As and Bs, some of which may yet be supplied to foreign customers - South Korea has been mentioned. Worldwide, T-38As are already operated by Germany (40 based in the USA), Portugal (12 being phased out), Taiwan (20, plus 50 on lease) and Turkey (29). Some are candidates for upgrades.
LOOKING AHEAD
"With the new T-38, we are looking forward toward the F-22 and not back at the F-16," says the USAF. "Our programme goal is to-provide pilots with the essential avionics and cockpit-management skills necessary for transition to follow-on major-weapons-system aircraft," says programme manager Kathy Cliett. The new cockpit will feature a head-up display (HUD), colour head-down multi-function display (MFD), mission computer, inertial-navigation/global-positioning system and other enhancements.
The new avionics will be designed to improve significantly the quality and sophistication of training for student pilots identified for "mission-ready" qualification on bombers or fighters after graduation. The USAF wants to combine undergraduate pilot-training with the follow-on, graduate-level, Introductory to Fighter Fundamentals training now performed in the armed AT-38B, to achieve one configuration for all training.
Centrepiece of the new T-38C cockpit will be the HUD. As the primary flight-reference, the HUD will display the standard symbology used in front-line fighters, including selectable modes for simulated air-to-air and air-to-ground employment of weapons such as guns, heat-seeking missiles, bombs and chaff/flare dispenser. The USAF has asked for growth capability to allow later integration of F-22 HUD symbology.
Each student's first few flights in the T-38C, after completing primary training in the non-HUD Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) Beech MkII, will be conducted without use of the HUD. Video of the front-cockpit (student's) HUD, will be displayed on a repeater in the rear (instructor's) cockpit. An up-front control panel for data entry, will be located in both cockpits, just below the HUD/repeater.
An MFD in each cockpit will have attitude-director and horizontal-situation display modes, independently selectable by both crewmembers. Fighter-standard hands-on-throttle-and-stick control is required. A flight-management system, with mission-planning data-transfer unit, will store up to ten flight plans and 150 navigation way points, and 20 preset UHF/VHF radio frequencies.
One unique requirement will significantly enhance introductory air-to-ground weapons-delivery sorties. An airborne weapon simulation and scoring capability, or "no-drop bombing system", will allow practice on targets at any suitable location, interface with HUD automatic-bombing modes and will display bomb-score results in the cockpit.
MAKING TRACKS
The upgraded T-38C is required to support the bomber/fighter track of the USAF's Specialised Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) programme until 2020, and possibly beyond. Under SUPT, following primary training on Cessna T-37Bs, student pilots enter one of two different training paths: tanker/transport or bomber/fighter.
Under a training master-plan launched in 1989, the tanker/transport track was the first to be modernised. McDonnell Douglas was selected to supply the tanker-transport training system (TTTS) and the Raytheon Beech T-1A Jayhawk was chosen as the TTTS training aircraft. Deliveries of 180 T-1As, based on the Beechjet 400A business jet, began in 1992.
A similar bomber-fighter training system (BFTS) was planned, with a new aircraft to replace the T-38. Faced with budget constraints, however, and structural concerns necessitating the earlier-than-planned replacement of the T-37, the USAF re-evaluated the airworthiness of the T-38 for service to 2020 and beyond. Because the Pacer Classic modification programme had increased the T-38's structural life, the Air Force chose to retain the aircraft, but update its avionics. The BFTS programme was subsequently shelved.
The schedule for the T-38 upgrade was influenced significantly by the lengthy competition for the third element of the SUPT programme, the JPATS - the replacement for the USAF's Cessna T-37Bs and Navy Beech T-34Cs. Once the T-38 upgrade was agreed upon, the JPATS procurement was rescheduled to precede the AUP. At that time, first JPATS deliveries to the USAF were scheduled for late 1993.
In mid-1995, after several years' delay, Raytheon's Beech MkII, a development of the Pilatus PC-9 turboprop trainer, was selected as the JPATS training aircraft. Protests from losing bidders Cessna and Rockwell delayed award of a contract to Raytheon until February 1996. The USAF now expects to have its first Beech MkII squadron operational in 2001.
The contract protests also delayed award of a contract for the JPATS ground-based training system (GBTS). Raytheon is running the GBTS competition and has short-listed four teams to supply the ATDs, led by FlightSafety International, Hughes Training, Lockheed Martin (formerly Loral) and McDonnell Douglas. Proposals are due in June and award is scheduled for December 1996.
Although subjected to unforeseen JPATS delays and complications, the Air Force benefited from the lessons learned. The USAF hoped to avoid similar problems by refining the T-38 AUP requirements with industry and devising an improved acquisition strategy. One result is that the winner will receive three non-severable contracts and what the USAF terms "total system-integration responsibility".
INVOLVING INDUSTRY
Issue of the RFP followed almost 18 months of close co-ordination between the Air Force and potential prime contractors, major subcontractors and component suppliers. The USAF hosted periodic "T-38 Industry Days", beginning in June 1994. These helped streamline the acquisition and to foster better communication between industry and the Air Force.
The USAF wants the programme to be "primarily a software-development and systems-integration effort...[with] minimal new hardware development". Off-the-shelf equipment is expected to play a major part in each team's avionics-suite design.
Major proposal-evaluation criteria are management, engineering, system engineering and logistics. The USAF plans to award the AUP contract based on overall "best value", a less-than-specific measurement which ultimately sparked protests after its use in choosing the winner of the JPATS competition. The USAF is hoping that such disputes will not plague the T-38 AUP.
Source: Flight International
