The Boeing–Saab T-7 Red Hawk, initially known as the Boeing T-X (later Boeing–Saab T-X), is an American–Swedish transonic advanced jet trainer produced by Boeing with Saab. In September 2018, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected it for the T-X program to replace the Northrop T-38 Talon as the service’s advanced jet trainer. The USAF’s Air Education and Training Command (AETC) began developing the requirements for a replacement for the supersonic Northrop T-38 Talon as early as 2003. Originally, the replacement trainer was expected to enter service around 2020. A fatigue failure of a T-38C killed its two-person crew in 2008, and the USAF advanced the target date of initial operational capability (IOC) to 2017. In the fiscal 2013 budget proposal, the USAF suggested delaying the initial operating capability to FY2020 with the contract award not expected before FY2016. Shrinking budgets and higher-priority modernization projects pushed the IOC of the T-X program winner to “fiscal year 2023 or 2024.
T-7 Red Hawk – Warbird Wednesday Episode #252
