Originally the Air Force wanted to award the contract for the T-X trainer aircraft by the end of 2017. Now the decision will reportedly not take place until 2018.

Air Force Under Secretary Matt Donovan during his first interview in his new role at the Pentagon.

“Source selection is never based on the calendar, it’s based on events that they finished the source selection, and they do expect that to be somewhere in the spring,” he told Defense News, adding that the new target date is probably sometime near the end of March.

Donovan did not explain why the award had been pushed back, but said broadly that “sometimes they have to go back out to the offerors and get more information, and it’s an iterative process.” – DefenseNews

Featured image of a U.S. Air Force Northrop T-38A-65-NO Talon aircraft from 560th Flying Training Squadron, Randolph AFB, Texas by SSGT Jeffrey Allen, USAF [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This article is courtesy of Fighter Sweep.