INDUSTRY REPORT // BOEING T-7A RED HAWK
The US Air Force is evaluating how the Boeing/ Saab T-7A Red Hawk program could be accelerated and used to tackle two burgeoning problems that the air arm is facing…
AS THE US Air Force seeks to add new fighter squadrons to its ranks and also tackle the tricky problem of a pilot shortage crisis, the rise of the Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk (the new official name for the T-X) advanced jet trainer couldn’t be timed better. A new study for the USAF says the key to expanding its fleet of fighters could lie in developing the T-7A as a low-cost, lightweight fighter. The study was one of two reports by the MITRE Corporation (a not-for-profit organization managing research in support of government agencies) in answer to a Congress directive for an independent analysis of the USAF’s aim to increase in size, in order to meet the demands of the US National Defense Strategy.
The corporation’s senior principal systems engineer David Gerber said that less-demanding missions such as homeland defense should not soak up precious hours for advanced fourth and fifth-generation fighters, saying that this kind of role could easily be assumed by a developed variant of the T-7A.
While thi…
