The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a £360 million commitment to fully recapitalise the RAF’s Jet Training System, including new aircraft for the Red Arrows aerobatic display team, though the number of jets and their in-service dates have yet to be determined.
Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP for Huntingdon, asked how many training jets would enter service under the recapitalisation referenced in the Defence Investment Plan. Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard replied on 8 July:
“The Defence Investment Plan commits £360 million to the full recapitalisation of the Jet Training System, including the provision of new aircraft for the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows. The programme will deliver a modernised training capability for both UK and international fast-jet training requirements.”
He added that work is under way to define the detailed requirement, delivery approach and procurement strategy, with the government’s commitment at this stage limited to delivering a recapitalised system and new Red Arrows aircraft, and further details to be confirmed as the programme matures.
The Red Arrows have flown the BAE Hawk T1 since 1979, an airframe now approaching half a century old and long since out of production, while the RAF’s broader fast-jet training pipeline also relies on the Hawk T2 for advanced training ahead of the Typhoon and F-35.
A recapitalisation covering both the display team and the wider training system points towards a single replacement type or family serving both roles, though the answer does not name any candidate aircraft, confirm whether the Hawk succession will be met by a new-build jet or an adapted existing type, or state when the current fleet is due to retire.
With that amount of funding? Not many.
There are the 28 Hawk T2 currently, with 4 FTS, and the remaining Hawk T1 for the Reds.
The assets should be increasing to allow flex in the MFTS. As always, numbers continue to drop.
Hope I’m wrong, but with that budget??
To the MOD/HMG this just means we need to replace the 28 + a dozen for the red arrows. The treasury still wouldn’t pay for around 40 so expect cuts with the usual….
The usual….
“100”s of jobs, great quality skills, keeping us all safe, uncertain world, meeting the threats of tomorrow.”
That sort of thing.
Never mind the minor detail that the RAF FTS is creaking due to a simple lack of assets and people.
I guess the new aircraft will be much more reliable, and simulators can take more of the load, plus the CCA Loyal Wingmen, and thus we don’t need as many might come into play as well.
My guess is no more than 20 to 30, I looked at Google ( maybe not the most reliable?) for the price of those Italian Jet Trainers.
I understand the T7 is even pricier.
The T7 will be assembled at Wroughton. It will keep the site going.
If the T-7 is built in the UK, there is an argument that the benefit to the UK economy will boost the Treasury. If they’re sensible (big if), they should offset the price against that overall economic benefit.
One of the reasons I think the T-7 is the better option is that BAe would be able to make modifications to the software without having to go to Boeing/Saab, which would hopefully mean we don’t see the same sovereign capability issues that we’ve seen with the F-35.
The T-7 is Boeing, so good luck with that. Also the T-7 will be much dearer per hour, simply on fuel in comparison to the Hawk. I fear the budget will lead to another PFI, that though cheaper in the short term, will be many times more expensive over two decades. To my mind, the best solution is to buy something cheap & cheerful as a basic jet (L-39NG) then a smaller number of advanced trainers (T-7, FA-50, M346, Hurjet). Red Arrows Should get refurbished/new wing Hawk T2.
The Italians are doing exactly that with the M345 as the cheaper trainer and the M346 as the more advanced FJT.
The only issue there is the logistics of maintaining two different aircraft.
It’s all starting to get depressing isn’t it? I understand you can do a lot with modern simulators but pilots still need to be in the air and let’s face it despite all the talk in the DIP, reliable autonomous air is still going to be years away.
Starting to?!
@FOSTERSMAN I posted a sarcastic comment about Aston Martin running their F1 team better than our government is handling the nation’s defence, but your comment kind of feeds into this. Aston Martin designed a fantastic car in the wind tunnel, but the instant it hit the track it was a nightmare in every aspect, it just didn’t work like it did in the tunnel.
And that’s the issue of doing everything via computer. We wouldn’t train our military by giving them 3 months on classic Doom and saying “right, that’s how shotguns and automatic weapons work, you all have a 10,000:1 KTD ratio, you’re ready for anything Russia’s got”
The numbers don’t stack up.
The flyaway cost of a T7 Red Hawk is reportedly about £15m. That gives 24 for the £360m stated budget. Nowhere near enough to replace the T2s and T1s for the red arrows. The budget needs to double.
Most figures in DIP that say x for a certain thing are only to up to 2030! Read the DIP!! Anything after 2030 is on top of that!
I’ve read it.
It’s as vague as the SDR and full of holes.
Can only take the positives that it contains.
I’d also question why is the DIP a 4 year plan, as the SDR it was supposed to relate to covered 10 years.
>“The Defence Investment Plan commits £360 million to the full recapitalisation of the Jet Training System”
That doesn’t make sense. It seems reasonable to assume that a minimum of 40 aircraft are required for RAF/FAA advanced jet training and the Red Arrows. I doubt if any serious candidate design has a fly away unit cost under £20m, add on infrastructure, services, spares … and £1 bn is surely the absolute minimum budget.
For the training of UK Pilots, I reckon we can get away with “up to 5”.
It works with every other bleeding order (at least until It gets cancelled).
“Reach for the Sky”.
Is there a hard-headed analysis in the MOD that the number of Hawk T2s at Valley, 28, is a legacy from the days when we had a much larger combat air fleet, and that the much-reduced modern fleet requires fewer fast jet trainers? .I suppose that might be a plausible cut.
Is it? I think T2 came before 2010 ish.
By 2010 there were 12 Fast Jet Sqns left after the uni party reduced them from 23 around the late 90s and much higher before mid 90s.
We had a larger fast jet fleet when Hawk T1 was still used, so to me, the 28 are already at minimum levels.
But you might be right that HMG will spin it that way.
The 28 T2 were billed as the first batch. There was supposed to be a second batch of up to 28 that never happened.
This DIP is like someone decided to draw a comic strip, then filling each frame with images so there’s no room for the speech bubbles, but that’s ok because they haven’t even got a story yet.
The Aston Martin F1 team is being managed better than our military procurement.