Originally Posted by
Bob Viking
Sorry for the late reply.
I’m sure you will know by now that I’m a big fan of the Hawk as a training jet and it worked brilliantly for everything the RAF had up to and including Typhoon (certainly in its early days). It’s still doing a good job now.
For the future though the Hawk would need such a redesign in terms of manoeuvrability and sensors (simulated or otherwise) that it would effectively become a new aircraft and it would be just as easy to start from scratch.
Remember that the Hawk IS a dead project so this is a moot point but it could do a good job with a significant avionics upgrade and skip the handling side of things.
The idea of an avionics enhancement has been talked about since the early days of the T2 and I can’t imagine it has progressed any further.
BV
The guys at Brough had fitted a full-width working F35-style display to the demonstrators but I don't think they had the associated sensors. I wonder if lack of company investment cooled the MoD interest, but they didn't have the will or funds, anyhow.