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Old 22nd Jan 2014, 17:32
  #106 (permalink)  
WH904
 
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Last time I asked about the Sidewinder role, it had drifted into obscurity along with the MFF concept. Presumably the aircraft are still capable of carrying Sidewinders but it's clearly a long-gone idea. Not much point augmenting Typhoons with Hawks. These days, if the UK got into a struggle that was so desperate as to need MFF resurrecting, we might as well wave a white flag and forget about it.

As for the Blue Angels, I can verify that their airframes are usually the oldest or the most-used in the fleet. The twin-seater I bumbled around in a couple of times was an old wreck, disguised by highly polished paintwork!

Nobody is going to touch the Red Arrows - it's too much of a political headache that nobody wants to handle. No MP wants to be billed as the person who killed-off the Red Arrows. The Hawks will soon be at the end of their fatigue lives and it seems more likely that they will simply be retired when they have to be, and that the RAFAT will disband as a direct result. It's the easy option that avoids any ugly murder scenes.

Whether any team re-appears to replace them is open to question. If industry money was put into the idea then maybe it could happen, but it would require a batch of very old Hawks to be refurbished and maintained at great cost. It seems unlikely that even industry could support such a venture. Of course the RAF has some shiny new Hawks now, but there are very few of them (too few in fact) and there's no way that resources could be diverted to display flying.

Sadly, one has to conclude that the heady days of nine-ship formation flying isn't going to last forever.
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