http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhFJjgWWq0Capabilities
As the leader in 5th Generation development, Lockheed Martin, in partnership with Korea Aerospace Industries, brings the experience and leadership to support the next generation of pilots.
Seamless Transition into 5th Generation Fighters
The T-50A is easy to fly—similar to the F-16, F-22, and F-35—which helps avoid negative training and unnecessary sorties. The T-50A creates better pilots, in less time, for less cost by enabling student pilots to focus their airmanship skills on improved aero performance, digital flight controls/fly-by-wire, with NextGen air traffic management systems, while operating from an anthropometrically designed 5th Generation cockpit.
Downloading / Offloading for Cost-Effectiveness
The Republic of Korea Air Force’s training experience has shown that the new training system yields a better fighter pilot in less time with fewer sorties and lower cost. The T-50 training program has reduced the number of required flights in the KF-16 to only nine sorties. The Ground-Based Training System contains an array of innovative technologies to provide options for “offloading” aircraft training tasks into the simulation environment.
Built-In Mission Flexibility
The T-50A aircraft configuration is based on South Korea’s FA-50, which is currently in production. The FA-50, the most advanced version of the T-50, incorporates air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, along with an avionics suite that contains an electronic warfare suite, a multi-mode radar and an advanced data-link.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/t50A.htmlLockheed Martin's upgraded T-50A jet trainer successfully completed its first flight test, a key milestone for the aircraft Lockheed is offering for the Air Force's next-generation trainer fleet.
The flight took place in Sacheon, South Korea, as the T-50A is currently manufactured there jointly by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin.
"The aircraft in its new configuration with the 5th Gen cockpit and other upgrades performed flawlessly," Mark Ward, Lockheed Martin T-50A lead test pilot, said after his flight. "I have no doubt this aircraft will close the gap which currently exists between the trainer fleet and 5th Generation fighters."
The T-X is a crucial piece of the Air Force's plan to eventually replace all of its fighter jets with the fifth-generation F-35s and F-22s, as the service needs an upgraded trainer fleet to properly train its rising pilots to fly fifth-generation aircraft.
Lockheed earlier this year announced it would offer the T-50A for the Air Force's T-X program to replace its aging T-38 trainers, nixing a plan to offer clean-sheet design. The key advantage of offering the T-50A instead of a clean-sheet design is that the Korean aircraft is ready for production now, Lockheed officials have said. More than 100 T-50s and more than 1,000 pilots are flying in South Korea, Indonesia, Iraq, the Philippines and Thailand.
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/2016/06/02/lockheeds-t-50a-lifts-off-first-time-ahead-t-x-competition/85289856/
