US Air Force expects to expand vertical fight training with T-X

The US Air Force (USAF) will expand its vertical fight training now that it has Boeing under contract to deliver its T-X advanced pilot training programme, according to a key officer.

Major General Patrick Doherty, 19th Air Force commander, on 27 November flew the USAF’s first official sortie in a T-X aircraft. The service awarded Boeing its contract in late September to build the aircraft that will eventually replace its fleet of Northrop T-38C Talon trainers.

David Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s (AFA’s) Mitchell Institute and a retired fighter pilot and USAF commander, told Jane’s on 4 January that vertical fight training is the ability of a pilot to perform basic fighter manoeuvres. While the T-38C can perform these basic fighter manoeuvres, it is limited because it has such a small wing with huge turn rates. He said the T-38C, at altitude, tends to lose airspeed very quickly in high speed turns.

“[The T-38C is a high-performing aircraft, but in the context of fighter aviation capability and skills that are necessary to be learned to succeed in fighter manoeuvres, the T-X might be a better performing aircraft,” Deptula said.

Maj Gen Doherty (left), 19th Air Force commander, taxies out to the flightline with a Boeing pilot for a T-X trainer familiarisation sortie in St Louis on 27 November 2018. The T-X trainer will provide student pilots with the skills needed to transition to 4th- and 5th-generation fighter and bomber aircraft. (USAF)

Maj Gen Doherty told Jane’s on 18 December that the aircraft, flown in St Louis, Missouri, had a great thrust-to-weight ratio and that the T-X felt similar to a combination of a mini-Boeing F/A-18 Hornet and a mini-Lockheed Martin F-16V Viper.