Becoming a military pilot requires a staggering amount of training. And while simulators can help, there’s no perfect substitute for the real thing. In this video, we take you inside the newest, most advanced, and one of the only supersonic jet trainers – the Boeing Saab T-7 Red Hawk.
The Boeing–Saab T-7 Red Hawk, initially known as the Boeing T-X (later Boeing–Saab T-X), is an American–Swedish subsonic advanced jet trainer produced by Boeing with Saab. In September 2018, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected it for the T-X program to replace the Northrop T-38 Talon as the service’s advanced jet trainer.
Development
The USAF’s Air Education and Training Command (AETC) began developing the requirements for a replacement for the supersonic Northrop T-38 Talon as early as 2003. Originally, the replacement trainer was expected to enter service around 2020. A fatigue failure of a T-38C killed its two-person crew in 2008, and the USAF advanced the target date of initial operational capability (IOC) to 2017. In the fiscal 2013 budget proposal, the USAF suggested delaying the initial operating capability to FY2020 with the contract award not expected before FY2016. Shrinking budgets and higher-priority modernization projects pushed the IOC of the T-X program winner to “fiscal year 2023 or 2024”. Although the program was left out of the FY 2014 budget entirely, the service still viewed the trainer as a priority.
Boeing teamed up with Swedish aerospace firm Saab to compete for the T-7 program. On 13 September 2016, the team unveiled prototypes of the Boeing T-X, a single-engine advanced jet trainer with a twin tail, tandem seating, and retractable tricycle landing gear, powered with a General Electric F404 afterburning turbofan engine. The first T-X aircraft flew on 20 December 2016. The Boeing–Saab team submitted their entry after the Air Force opened the T-7 program to bids in December 2016.
Boeing-Saab T-7 prototypes c. 2018
In September 2018, Air Force officials announced that Boeing’s design would be its new advanced jet trainer, under a program costing up to US$9.2 billion (~$11 billion in 2023) that would purchase 351 aircraft, 46 simulators, maintenance training and support. This contract has options for up to 475 airplanes in total. In 2018, Boeing recorded a $691-million (~$826 million in 2023) pre-tax charge during the third quarter, in part because of the T-X program.
In May 2019, Saab announced that it would open a U.S. manufacturing facility for the T-X in Indiana with Purdue University.
In September 2019, the USAF named the aircraft the “T-7A Red Hawk” as a tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, who painted their airplanes’ tails red, and to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, an aircraft flown by the 99th Fighter Squadron, the U.S. Army Air Force’s first black fighter squadron.
The aircraft entered series production in February 2021. In April 2021, Saab Group delivered one aft section of T-7A aircraft to the Boeing St. Louis plant. In July 2021, Saab had delivered the second aft section to the Boeing St. Louis plant. Boeing will splice Saab’s aft section with the front section, fins, wings and tail assembly to become a complete test aircraft for use in the EMD’s flight test program. On completion of the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase, Saab’s new facility in West Lafayette, Indiana is to serve as the manufacturing hub for the T-7A Red Hawk’s aft section and sub-systems such as hydraulics, fuel systems and secondary power.
Saab has developed new software for the T-7 to help provide for cheaper and faster development. The T-7A employed digital engineering that went from development to the first test flight within 36 months. The T-7A has an advanced and digitized production line that takes only 30 minutes to splice the aft section with the wings. The digital build process allows technicians to build the aircraft with minimal tooling and drilling during the assembly process. The first production T-7 was rolled out on 28 April 2022.
In May 2023, the Government Accountability Office released a report on the T-7 program detailing problems with the software and safety systems and other delays that saw the USAF delay the next production decision to February 2025. The report said that a schedule provided by Boeing in January 2023 was optimistic and dependent on favorable assumptions. Notwithstanding the delayed production decision, the report noted that Boeing still planned to start producing the first T-7s in early 2024.
In June 2023, the first flight of the T-7A production aircraft was conducted from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, by Major Bryce Turner, a test pilot with the 416th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and Steve Schmidt, Boeing’s chief T-7 test pilot.
On 21 September 2023, the first Red Hawk (tail number APT-2) was shipped to the US Air Force. It was deployed at Edwards Air Force Base for testing. Two additional units (APT-1 and APT-3) were delivered late 2023, with a fourth (APT-4) delayed into 2024. In total, five Red Hawks in engineering and manufacturing development configuration will be delivered for its test program. Assembly of a production model is anticipated to begin in the second quarter of 2024.
Top Photo: A U.S. Air Force publicity image of the T-7A Red Hawk showing Red Tail livery
Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube