HX Challenge
The HX Challenge testing and evaluation event for HX fighter candidates will be held in Finland in January and February 2020. The event will take place mainly in Pirkkala and will be hosted by the Satakunta Air Command.
The HX Challenge is being held in Finland so that each candidate’s performance can be verified under Finnish conditions and through tests designed in Finland. This procedure guarantees that the performance of each candidate’s systems and aircraft can be evaluated fairly.
The testing event will verify the performance claims made in the responses to the call for tenders, along with any performance values previously verified in laboratory tests. This way, it will be possible to assess the performance of the aircraft, systems and sensors in the Finnish operating environment. The Finnish operating environment and practices may also differ from those of other users in terms of weather and lighting conditions.
The testing event will evaluate the multi-role fighters and their systems on the ground and in the air, and at take-off and landing. Each candidate has been given five working days to demonstrate its performance in Finland. The testing periods for the tenderers will be as follows:
Eurofighter Typhoon 9–17 January 2020
Rafale 20–28 January 2020
Gripen 29 January–6 February 2020
F-35 7–17 February 2020
F/A-18 Super Hornet 18–26 February 2020
HX Challenge as part of performance assessment
The testing event marks the first stage of the performance assessment. The objective of the first phase is to evaluate the performance of the multi-role fighters and their systems.
The second phase will make use of the data and performance values obtained in the testing event. The goal of the second phase is to determine the success of a fleet of four aircraft in the scenarios set out in the call for tenders.
The third phase of the performance evaluation, which will take place at the end of 2020, aims to determine the operational efficiency of each candidate’s HX system by playing and simulating a long-term war game.
For media
A media day will be held for each candidate’s tests at the base. The Air Force is responsible for the arrangements and invitations. The media days for each candidate are:
Eurofighter 10 January 2020
Dassault 21 January 2020
Saab 30 January 2020
Lockheed Martin 10 February 2020
Boeing 19 February 2020
The HX Programme does not publicly comment on the performance, test results, special characteristics or specific details of the candidates.