Originally Posted by
BBadanov
It is a sad indictment of the British aerospace industry - BAe - that they cannot design and build the new advanced jet trainer.
Done it before - with two good aircraft, the Jaguar and the brilliant Hawk. We (RAAF) followed the RAF with a newer T.1, greatly upgraded digital avionics as the LIFT and called the Mk.127, ordered in 1996. Similar I would guess to Viking's Canadian Mk.115. The RAF's follow-on Hawk T.2 appears not to have been a great success.
Our Hawk 127 will be the next fast jet for replacement, and with no RAF indigenous project, I can see going for the T-7.
Actually the Mk.115 and Mk.127 Hawks were quite different.
The Mk.115 (and Indian Mk.132 with indigenous avionics) were based closely on the "2nd generation" Hawk, the Mk.102/3/8/9 from the mid- 80's and raster-type displays.
The mid-90's Mk.127 LIF had a substantial avionics fit to initially replicate the F-18 (Boeing did the same to make the T-45C from the original T-45A). It also included a significantly upgraged centre and rear fuselage to address all the tailplane buffet issues found well after the T.Mk.1 entered service. This airframe and fit became the baseline for the following production Mk.128 (T.Mk.2) right up to the last Mk.167 (Qatar). The T.Mk.2 included a later avionics upgrade which I think the RAAF have taken up (moving map, simulated radar etc.).
As far as I can tell, it is a useful training platform (hope BV can confirm), it's availabilty that is the problem
Many people in BAE Systems (especially at the working level) were convinced there was a new project or at least another significant upgrade required but forthcoming definite orders to justify the investment had always been a problem on Hawk. Development of the company demonstrator ZJ951 with slatted wing (by basically the same team that had rushed through the T45 slatted wing and other mods) was flown to demonstrate potential for the USAF trainer and an F-35 style display fitted, but the partnership with Northrop didn't proceed.
From my lowly viewpoint, there was always a reluctance in the RAF to take on the Hawk T.Mk.2, partly because people were unaware of the LIF capability, hostility to BAES maybe?, also (the cycnic in me thinks) RAF and DE&S people would rather than join the gravy train to Italy than sunny East Yorkshire !