SNC unveils Freedom Trainer, latest entrant to Navy competition

WASHINGTON — Aerospace firm SNC today revealed its offering for the Navy’s Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) program, a new candidate joining a crowded industry field to replace the service’s aging T-45 Goshawk.

SNC’s proposed twin-engine, two-seat aircraft, called the “Freedom Trainer,” draws from a design the company pioneered years ago with Turkish Aerospace Industries, a company official told Breaking Defense today. SNC in the time since continued to develop the jet and now plans to offer it in hopes of becoming the prime contractor for UJTS. 

“What we set out to do was to be able to improve the training performance and quality while reducing the cost of that increase in training performance,” Derek Hess, SNC vice president of business development, said in an interview. “And that is not a trivial task to do, and we have come up with a platform that will do exactly that.”

According to a press release from the company, the Freedom Trainer is expected to boast an airframe life of 16,000 hours, obviating the need for “unplanned” life extension programs. Additionally, the release claims that the jet’s engine-related expenses are 40 percent lower than current Navy trainers and half that of land-based trainers. Hess said the aircraft design is “harmonized around” the Williams International FJ44 powerplant. 

SNC is typically known for aircraft conversion work, and asked how the company plans to manufacture the jet if selected, Hess said some details are still “competition sensitive.” But he emphasized SNC as the prime contractor “will be responsible for every nut and bolt and system that goes into the aircraft. And we do have an amazing amount of capacity to add to the US industrial base.” 

Known likely competitors for the Navy program already include teams led by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Textron and a little-known firm called Stavatti. 

Hess and Ray Fitzgerald, SNC senior vice president for strategy, said the trainer will offer field carrier landing practice (FCLP) to touchdown, in which pilots landing on an airfield runway would be able to simulate landing as if it was on an aircraft carrier, which on a real ship can entail hitting the deck hard and angling the aircraft the right way to grab an arresting cable. The Navy says FCLPs typically entail “repetitive ‘touch and go’ landings at airfields.”

Notably, a recent request for information (RFI) from the Navy showed the service backing away from the FCLP-to-touchdown requirement, instead allowing for competitors to offer FCLP up to the point of a simulated wave-off. An official request for proposals (RFP) outlining requirements has not yet been released. After publication of this report, a Navy spokesperson told Breaking Defense the service plans to release an RFP in December, and that per the prior RFI, “the UJTS air vehicle will only be required to conduct Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) to wave off.”

Unlike the T-45, the UJTS is not expected to actually land on a carrier. Still, Hess said the Freedom Trainer is capable of carrier touch-and-gos on a ship itself. “Our aircraft is built for the UJTS mission from the ground-up,” he said. 

SNC hopes also hopes to draw the Navy’s interest in the aircraft’s data rights. In the event the company wins the competition, “we’re handing them the data package,” Fitzgerald said — a feature that is typically a sticking point with industry. “So they’re going to own their own destiny from the get-go.”   

An open systems architecture also enables the jet to more easily facilitate work with partners like Red 6, a company building a helmet-mounted augmented reality system called the Airborne Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS), according to the company. In practice, ATARS sit on a pilot’s visor and projects images of threats like enemy aircraft, enabling pilots to train against adversaries without needing another aircraft, and its pilot, to pose as an enemy. 

SNC is partnering with Red 6 on the Freedom Trainer so that equipment like ATARS is “built into” the aircraft from the start, Fitzgerald explained. The company’s approach entails a Freedom “Family of Systems” to include the jet itself, a ground-based training system, an integrated logistics system, and infrastructure that links those elements together, according to Hess. 

“We really try hard to make sure that we are listening to the Navy and that we have a full and open competition, and that they value the things that we bring to that competition,” Hess said.