Navy contracts L-3 for T-45 Goshawk maintenance, support

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- L-3 Communications has received a $203 million contract for depot level maintenance, logistics and engineering support for the U.S. Navy's T-45 training aircraft.

Work on the contract, announced Monday by the Department of Defense, will be performed at the Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, NAS Meridian, Miss., NAS Pensacola, Fla., and NAS Patuxent River, Md.

The contract runs through September 2019, the Pentagon said.

The T-45 Goshawk is a tandem-seat training jet capable of aircraft carrier operations. It is a U.S. Navy version of the British Aerospace Hawk aircraft and is used by both the Navy and Marine Corps for pilot training. Variants of the aircraft have been in use since 1991.

The T-45 has suffered from oxygen-system issues, alongside the F/A-18 Hornet and other aircraft, that has led to hypoxia symptoms in pilots. The Navy has established a special commission to study the problem.