The competition for a contract to build the new T-X trainer jet for the U.S. Air Force may be more intense than we thought. A report Thursday in Defense News suggests that Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) may be getting into the game as the prime contractor, with Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi as the subcontractor, that would provide the airplane.

Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian industrial giant Finmeccanica, had established a partnership with General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD), but that ended in March when General Dynamics dropped out. According to Defense News, Air Force officials revealed in an exclusive interview last Monday that the service had been discussing the T-X program since May, just two months after General Dynamics pulled out.

The base for a Raytheon bid would be Alenia Aermacchi’s M-345, rebranded as the T-100. The Italian company needs a U.S.-based prime contractor, and Raytheon, which provides electronics and weapons to other manufacturers, needs a platform for its components.

The two companies have apparently been discussing a joint bid for some time, and Italian sources told Defense News that a new prime contractor to take the T-100 bid forward “is in the works.”

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Saab have teamed on a clean-sheet design for the T-X. Earlier this week they released a concept image of the nose of the plane.

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Other expected bidders on the Air Force trainer contract are a clean-sheet design from Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC), and perhaps another clean-sheet design from Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), in conjunction with KAI, makers of the T-50 jet trainer.

The catch in all this is that the Pentagon has no funding for the program, which could cost about $65 billion for 350 planes.

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