A concept of a future variant of the Hawk aircraft, the Advanced Hawk Demonstrator Aircraft, has flown for the first time in Warton, Lancashire.
BAE Systems has created the Advanced Hawk as part of efforts to attract interest from the Indian military and other potential export customers for the training/strike role.
Equipped with a new type of pilot display, a redesigned wing and defensive aids. The jet will, according to BAE, meet market requirements for the next generation of fast jet training aircraft.
According to a statement to the press, the aircraft has many upgrades over previous variants of the aircraft:
“Whilst the existing Hawk continues to be the world’s most successful jet trainer, the Advanced Hawk concept demonstrator builds on these proven successes. The concept demonstrator features an upgraded cockpit equipped with BAE Systems’ LiteHUD® (a low-profile head-up display) and a new, large area display that introduces a new student/pilot training experience. It also features a redesigned wing that increases performance in areas such as turn rates, angles of attack and both take-off and landing.
Other technology advances include increased stores capability, a new set of defensive aids and a range of new flight systems, all aimed at ensuring Hawk continues to provide the edge in fast jet pilot training, as well as offering increased operational utility.”
Steve Timms, Managing Director Defence Information, Training & Services at BAE Systems said:
“The successful first flight of the Advanced Hawk concept demonstrator is the latest step in the aircraft’s development and marks a significant milestone in Hawk’s capability upgrade. We already have the world’s leading advanced jet trainer and the new features in Advanced Hawk have been developed after listening to our customers’ views on where fast jet pilot training will go in the future and how we ensure the Hawk continues to meet their requirements.
By using this demonstrator aircraft we have highlighted to existing users of Hawk that many of the proposed features of an Advanced Hawk, such as the large area display and new wing, could be achievable as upgrades.”
The aircraft will now undergo a series of flights to collect test data on the new key capability enhancements.
Great to see an updated Hawk. Wonder if BAE can get this into production quickly for the RAF and into upcoming trials for US trainer?
I thought I had read that the Advanced Hawk had been withdrawn from the competition for the US trainer programme a couple months back.
This is BAE we are talking about- no it will not get into production quickly or be ready to bid for future US fast jet trainer, unless of course we, meaning the British public fund the development programme to the tune of billions of £
That seems to be the history of BAE to date and is a sad indictment on the UK defence industry.
Sorry to be pessimistic but you have to look at recent history to see this is true.
Well, it isn’t true regarding Hawk its been a major export success.
Didn’t you know that Mr J B ?
Only issue is it wasn’t a BAE design. They acquired it So couldn’t cock it up. Ohhh but they tried.
Could this be a contender for the Red Arrows replacement aircraft?
And doesn’t the RAF need to replace it’s legacy Hawks too sometime in the next few years?
The Red Arrows do need to replace their T1 trainers in the next few years.
Another unit which are still flying the T1’s is 736 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm, the “Adversary Squadron”
I think we could benefit from a few of these in light attack configuration, the future Typhoon and Lightning 2’s are going to expensive per flying hour including maintenance costs. We’d benefit from already having Hawk maintenance facilities, and in recent conflicts, Typhoon/Lightning…considering the posed threat levels in uncontended airspace a little on the overkill side of things….two or three Squadrons of Brimstone toting Hawks could be useful…or maybe a mix of assets similar to the T1 and F3 Tornado mix of yesteryear…as for stealthyness, surely their size and engine helps…and they certainly look nimble flying the Mach Loop! 2 crew as well….Sadly BAEs mainly seems to like making parts of aircraft rather than complete designs…even off-shoring building to HAL…Would love to see a resurgence of aircraft design in the UK…Hawker would be agressively touting this to everyone as a light strike trainer….
I wonder if a modern radar is being considered for this aircraft, along the lines of the Hawk 200.
So are they suggesting that legacy hawks can take a major modification of new wings and avionics?
Whilst I like the hawk and this looks good. I would like to see purchase the Gripen for the FJ trainer and fighter force.
The Gripen has a massive amount of British manufacturing input in them and if it means we can have a capable FJ trainer that is combat capable then I am all for it.
From my limited knowledge it is a great jet and has a good cost base and whilst not a Typhoon it would create a third tier to our FJ combat force and be a very good trainer (btw we do have some for training on lease I believe).
8 Sqdns (16) of these to replace the current hawk fleet would be great – but I am not holding my breath.
The Hawk is currently being replaced with Hawk T mk 2 within MFTS, 736 NAS and 100 Sqdn Hawk T mk 1s are going to be replaced as part of the AIr Supporr to Defence Training programme over the next ten years So far no plans for Red Arrows have been published but as T mk 1s come out of service there will be a surplus of aircraft depending on airframe life they could keep Red Arrows going.
The development is a logical step in the evolution of the Hawk time scale an current US programme is just one area there are other areas with legacy training aircraft in need of replacement