Chewing this one over in a bar, I was told by senior QFI colleague that Hawk 128 is a bit of a millstone around the neck of MFTS. It is a very expensive beast and was forced on the partner companies as a pre-condition. The operator's preference would be for the Aermacchi M311/M346 combination to provide the total FJ training solution. However, Sir Sydney Camm once said that aircraft have 4 dimensions - length, height, span and politics.