The £165 million Design &
Development Contract, signed in December 2004, for the RAF Hawk Mk.128
AJT (Advanced Jet Trainer) has been completed "on time and on budget",
according to BAE Systems 'Hawk News'.
Based on the
Australian Mk.127, the contract covered upgrading the mission systems
computers with autopilot, energy management cues, mission data loading
and recording facilities, traffic collision avoidance systems for use
in civil air space, and a moving map on one of the multi-functional
displays. Work is now in progress on a further software upgrade,
Operational Capability 2 (OC2), to give the aircraft synthetic training
capabilities for the simulation of various operational scenarios.
Aircraft deliveries are under way, with the RAF accepting the
first T2 (RAF designation) aircraft at Warton in February with six
accepted by the end of March. Training of the first six instructors at
the BAES site started shortly afterwards and has now been completed
using three aircraft. Ground crew training at Warton took place on the
two development aircraft, ZK010 and ZK012, both of which are back at
Brough to be brought up to full production standard before delivery.
Operations will continue at Warton until later this year when some
half dozen of the 28 aircraft fleet will move to RAF Valley for
"shakedown" flying and "instructor work". The rest will be put in store
at RAF Shawbury awaiting completion of the delayed contract, not signed
until June 2008, for a new Hawk T2 hangar complex, the foundations for
which were not started until February. The planned in-service date is
now November 2009. Altogether 22 Hawk T2s will be delivered this year
with the last six to follow in 2010. 'Flight International' reported
that the first students will fly the type in mid-2011, more than two
years from acceptance of the first aircraft. What will be happening in
the interim? It all seems very slow compared to the TMk1 story, and
that was with a brand new airframe!
A follow-on order from
India, for 40 more Hawk Mk 132s for the Air Force and 17 for the Navy,
is now in doubt because the Indian Government is to invite tenders for
the supply of further advanced jet trainers. An RFI (Request for
Information) has been issued to six companies, including to BAES, for
an upgraded Hawk AJT. The other contenders are the Czech Aero L-159
ALCA, the Italian Alenia Aermacchi M-346, the Korean KAI T-50 Golden
Eagle, and the Russian MiG ATand Yakovlev Yak 130. It has been reported
that this change of mind was caused by problems with Hawk spares and
the manufacturing programme at Hindustan Aeronautics.
More bad
news was that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force, a long time
Hawk operator, has chosen the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 rather than the
Hawk AJT. The M-346 features advanced aerodynamics, fly-by-wire and
supersonic performance. This, its first export order, is for 48
aircraft. Many years ago BAES decided not to design a Hawk successor
but to improve the capabilities of the existing airframe.
Updated on 20May2009