It's along time since I was a young aviation-minded schoolboy anxiously awaiting my first sight of an HS.1182. All good things come to an end but I feel at least a twinge of sadness that this month will see the end of UK production of the Hawk with the completion of the Qatari AF order. It appears from this story (
https://www.business-live.co.uk/manu...ering-19415666) that BAE Systems have managed to minimize compulsory redundancies.
With it's early withdrawal from the USAF's T-X competition, lack of orders for the Advanced Hawk and statements that all future training will be synthetic looks like BAE Systems is determined to exit another sector. Reminds me of the post 9/11 shift to after market support only for the 146/RJ/RJX as BAES declared the market would never recover - Embraer and Bombadier have managed to sell 2000+ aircraft in the RJ sector since 2001, Does BAES just want to reduce its presence/risk exposure in airframe manufacture to the absolute minimum?
If training aircraft are dead in the not to distant future why has the USAF embarked on procuring the T-7A and the US issued an RFI for the UJTS T-45 replacement? The last OSD I saw for the T-45 was 2042! As the UJTS initial introduction is aimed at 2028 the T-45 OSD has probably changed. If it could get a US partner, surely BAES could develop a third generation Hawk to meet the USN's requirements with potential other sales? Especially given the current demand is for an aircraft that can perform high sink rate touch and goes rather than arrested landing and catapult takeoff. Or am I just naive?
From UJTS RFI App-A Capability REquirements Appendix - 04JUN2020