A little known aerospace start-up has entered the crowded competition to build to the US Navy’s new trainer jet.
Stavatti Aerospace, based in the western New York city of Niagara Falls, responded to a solicitation for the Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) programme on 30 April. The navy confirmed receipt of the application on 1 May, according to email records.
The UJTS effort seeks to deliver a replacement to the navy’s ageing fleet of 189 Boeing T-45 Goshawk jet trainers. In March, the navy issued the latest in a series of non-binding requests for information (RFIs) outlining its tentative requirements for a Goshawk successor.
Stavatti says it plans to offer its SM-31 Stiletto concept for UJTS. The company describes the design as a single-engined, supersonic platform available in a single-seat SM-31S light fighter variant and two-seat SM-31T trainer.
The SM-31 would be powered by a Honeywell F125-GA-100 turbofan, according to Stavatti.
A rendering on the Stavatti website depicts the Stiletto with trapezoidal wings, V-tail vertical stabilisers and an exhaust venting deck – features more commonly associated with low-observable frontline fighters than trainers.
The company says it will present the SM-31T as a UJTS solution at the IDGA Air Dominance Summit in Las Vegas later this month.
However, the Stavatti bid appears to be at best a longshot.
Although listing many futuristic and detailed concepts for combat aircraft on its website, Stavatti has never actually produced one its designs.
In March 2024, the company’s hometown newspaper Buffalo News reported the local government’s economic development agency had revoked tax subsidies granted to Stavatti in 2020, citing a lack of movement on the company’s business plan to assemble military and commercial aircraft at a hangar facility on the grounds of the Niagara Falls International airport.
More recently, the Buffalo News editorial board on 19 March decried Stavatti as a debt-ridden failure, despite receiving plentiful financial and industrial support from New York State and the local municipal government.
The paper calls Stavatti’s founder and chief executive Christopher Beskar an “enthusiast” whose plans have “failed to materialise into anything substantial”.
The airport hangar site leased to Stavatti is currently empty and inactive, according to the Buffalo News. Stavatti was apparently evicted from a portion of the facility by the municipal government last December.
Beskar declined a request from FlightGlobal to discuss Stavatti’s current orders backlog or plans for aircraft production.
Stavatti unsuccessfully entered the US Air Force’s T-X trainer replacement programme, which was ultimately won by Boeing’s T-7A Red Hawk.
Amongst the more reputable contenders for the UJTS contract are the team of Textron and Leonardo, which will offer Leonardo’s twin-enigned M-346 Master, which is currently in service with Greece, Israel, Italy, Poland, Qatar and Singapore.
A competing team of Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) plan to bid a naval variant of KAI’s T-50 single engined trainer, already in service with seven countries.
Boeing is also expected to compete a naval variant of the T-7A developed for the US Air Force, which is currently undergoing flight testing and final refinement with the air force test pilots.
The navy’s UJTS RFI laid out the goal of signing a contract for the new trainer by 2028 – a two year slippage from its previous schedule. That timeline is ambitious, given the crowded field of offerings and lack of a formal request for proposal.
Notably, the new trainer jet will not have to be capable of making an arresting wire-assisted landing on the navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers, simplifying the design challenge.
