Saab is already receiving strong international interest in the T-X trainer aircraft it developed in partnership with Boeing, with the company’s CEO Håkan Buskhe telling reporters ahead of the Paris Air Show that he is “already feeling the pressure to sell it around the world”.
Seen at Boeing’s St Louis plant in the United States, the T-X aircraft is billed by Boeing and its Saab partner as being a strong prospect for the international trainer and light fighter market. Both companies have projected sales in the region of 2,600 airframes. (IHS Markit/Gareth Jennings )
Speaking at Saab’s Stockholm headquarters on 21 May, Buskhe said that interest in the clean-sheet design has been “huge”, and that strong international sales for the aircraft are anticipated.
“The T-X will be one of the biggest selling [trainer and light attack] aircraft of the next 20-or-so years,” he said, adding that that Saab’s initial prediction of about 2,000 aircraft is in-line with that of its partner, Boeing, which told Jane’s that it sees sales reaching 2,600 (including the 350 aircraft for the US Air Force [USAF]). “[Boeing] probably has a better forecast than we do,” he said.
Buskhe described the USAF’s decision to select the Boeing T-X (BTX) aircraft to meet its future pilot training requirements as akin to winning the Olympic Games. If you had told me nine years ago that every USAF pilot would be trained on a Saab-designed aircraft I would be in a dark room wearing a white suit with leather straps”, he added.
Buskhe’s comments came days after Boeing officials noted significant potential in securing light attack and Aggressor sales for the BTX aircraft, having factored the required growth capacity into the basic design of the aircraft.
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