T-X Trainer - Boeing T-7A Red Hawk

A potential new market for the T-7A albeit in an upgraded form:

The RFI said the aircraft sought will be used for initial tactical training, “adversary air support,” and as a “tactical fighter surrogate of existing and future” Air Force frontline fighters. The Air Force wants “feasibility, estimated cost, and schedule for at least 100” of these aircraft and as many as 200 more in lots of 50. The service wants a two-seat airplane “plus an option for a single seat” model with options to use the rear seat area for other mission gear.

The airplane sought would have capability for a speed of Mach 0.9 and be able to “replicate current and future fighter aircraft systems” by providing an embedded training environment to build “transferable skills, systems management skills, and decision-making skills” for weapons employment. The jet is to have a large cockpit display and one hardpoint on each wing to carry at least one Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation pod or a Combat Air Training Missile. The hardpoints also have to be able to carry an external fuel tank or an electronic attack or countermeasures pod or “other future pods.” Endurance is to be 90 minutes, of which 30 minutes would be “tactical maneuvering.” The jet is to have a ceiling of at least 45,000 feet and have a structural instantaneous G of 7.5, plus a sustained 6G maneuver.

The controls must have a “universal stick and throttle connection” to “enable reconfiguration of the flight controls to mimic Hands on Throttle and Stick of frontline” Air Force fighters.
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www.airforcemag.com

Air Force Wants Up to 400 Advanced Fighter Trainers Like T-7s | Air & Space Forces Magazine

The Air Force is seeking as many as 400 Advanced Tactical Trainer aircraft to train fighter pilots and to serve as adversary aircraft in training.
www.airforcemag.com www.airforcemag.com
 
Official Saab page on T-7A:

www.saab.com

T-7A | Saab

T-7A is designed in accordance with U.S. Air Force military future fighter and bomber pilot training requirements. The specific T-7A is the dedicated variant for U.S. Air Force.
www.saab.com www.saab.com
 
helmutkohl said:
any news if Sweden plans to purchase any since Saab is one of the partners?
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Officially the Saab 105s are expected to operate through to 2025 but one could probably reasonably assume that the T-7A will be seen in Flygvapnet sometime in the near future.
 
Boeing could adapt the the T-7A in accordance with USAF adversary trainer RFI:

Boeing to consider T-7A for USAF Advanced Tactical Trainer requirement

Boeing will consider offering the T-7A Red Hawk aircraft to the US Air Force (USAF) for its recently revealed Advanced Tactical Trainer (ATT) requirement.
www.janes.com

Also FlightGlobal reports that wing rock problem is solved!
 
TomcatViP said:
I would never have guessed that the T-7 has only around 2000kg of fuel (1/3rd less than a Hawk)!
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Well Its alternative LM/KAI T-50A has only about 2700kg of fuel (assuming that the aircraft's internal fuel capacity is the same as T-50). I am curious how much TAI Hurjet which is another trainer with F404 and said to have a longer range than T-50 could hold fuel internally.
TomcatViP said:
Also FlightGlobal reports that wing rock problem is solved!
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Could you share your link? This is an interesting development.
 
@SgtGungHo : Here it is:

www.flightglobal.com

US Navy interested in 64 ‘Tactical Surrogate Aircraft’

The aircraft would supplement flight time and training in frontline combat aircraft, provide adversary air support and serve as a flight lead aircraft for Fleet Replacement Squadrons, a unit that trains naval aviators on frontline combat aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35C and Boeing...
www.flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com
 
TomcatViP said:
@SgtGungHo : Here it is:

www.flightglobal.com

US Navy interested in 64 ‘Tactical Surrogate Aircraft’

The aircraft would supplement flight time and training in frontline combat aircraft, provide adversary air support and serve as a flight lead aircraft for Fleet Replacement Squadrons, a unit that trains naval aviators on frontline combat aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35C and Boeing...
www.flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com
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Thanks mate, but I couldn't find any reference from the article saying that the wing rock issue is now solved. However, I could quickly find another flightglobal article reports that Boeing claims that the wing rock issue is fixed. So I assume the fix is not actually confirmed by the USAF nor Pentagon? I mean It is possible that I could have missed something since I couldn't access to the whole artice because of paywalls.
 
SgtGungHo said:
Thanks mate, but I couldn't find any reference from the article saying that the wing rock issue is now solved.
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Boeing had developed a fix for that issue and added as part of the planned phased testing of the program. The flight test portion of that kicked off in the summer (late June / early July). Boeing seemed confident that it is past that issue, but the AF or the program will likely wait until it gets its hand on the EMD aircraft (the ones currently being built) and validates this. I think the prototypes (owned by Boeing) will soon be heading to Edwards, and the in-production EMD aircraft will be the ones that will really begin putting test cycles in so even i they have resolved this, it will likely be a few months to possibly a year before the AF signs off and officially retires the issue (that obviously doesn't mean that it hasn't been fixed already if Boeing feels it has based on testing it has done (since it's the only entity flying real aircraft at the moment).

From the Flight Global article:

Niewald also says that a ‘wing-rock’ issue discovered in mid-2021 has been resolved. In flights with the two T-7A prototypes, it was found that the wings tended to rock left and right at high angles of attack.

“We collected more data, were able to bring that down, model it, fly some updates in our manned hardware simulator to model our simulation efforts,” he says.

Following this work, a software fix was devised and loaded onto a test aircraft. A series of flights was conducted under different conditions to ensure the issue was resolved.
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www.flightglobal.com

Boeing offers update on Super Hornet CFTs; T-7A ‘wing-rock’ fix

Boeing says conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) will be available for F/A-18E/F Block III Super Hornets on the international market, and it has also resolved a 'wing-rock' issue with the T-7A advanced jet trainer.
www.flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com
 
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More on the ATT (Advanced Tactical Trainer) effort:

Asked if acquiring the system—the requirements of which are very similar to the capability in the new T-7 trainer—will have to wait until the T-7 buy is complete, Kelly said the ATT won’t necessarily be a T-7 variant.

The T-7 program of record is 349 airplanes, Kelly said, and Air Education and Training Command needs those as soon as it can get them, to train the youngest aviators.

“There could be a different solution out there,” he said, but “I need to get our aviators, as soon as I can, something that is not such a leap” from 1960s technology in the T-38 to 2021 technology in the F-35. “Right now, I’m putting that tactical bridge on the shoulders of our young instructors on the flight line.” But he has, again, signaled the acquisition community that the fighter trainer needs to come sooner than later. He needs something cheaper than $20,000 per hour flying cost, but “closer to $2,000-$3,000 an hour.”
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www.airforcemag.com

NGAD, New Weapons, E-3 Replacement Among Air Combat Command's Top Priorities, Kelly Says | Air & Space Forces Magazine

Gen. Mark D. Kelly outlined the top priorities for Air Combat Command, with the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter topping the list.
www.airforcemag.com www.airforcemag.com
 
And the very similar search from the Navy:

www.flightglobal.com

US Navy interested in 64 ‘Tactical Surrogate Aircraft’

The aircraft would supplement flight time and training in frontline combat aircraft, provide adversary air support and serve as a flight lead aircraft for Fleet Replacement Squadrons, a unit that trains naval aviators on frontline combat aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35C and Boeing...
www.flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com
 
Australia will probably be the next operator. Given industrial connections between Australian and Boeing, I can't think of a valid reason why Austarlia would want anything other than T-7A, especially when USAF will use the AJT.
 
SgtGungHo said:
Australia will probably be the next operator. Given industrial connections between Australian and Boeing, I can't think of a valid reason why Austarlia would want anything other than T-7A, especially when USAF will use the AJT.
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Not until 2030s at this stage.
 
TomcatViP said:
More on the ATT (Advanced Tactical Trainer) effort:

Asked if acquiring the system—the requirements of which are very similar to the capability in the new T-7 trainer—will have to wait until the T-7 buy is complete, Kelly said the ATT won’t necessarily be a T-7 variant.
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I don't think Boeing would have a problem delivering two variants. IIRC they built their production process to be able to support 60 deliveries a year, and the T-7 USAF buy is going to max out at something like 48 a year. So even without increasing production, there is a little bit of room in the current system to ramp up to its full rate and deliver about a dozen aircraft a year for a new requirement.
 
First EMD aircraft seems to be on track to fly before end of 2021.

Air Force, Boeing Working Through Trainer Setbacks

Air Force, Boeing Working Through Trainer Setbacks
www.nationaldefensemagazine.org www.nationaldefensemagazine.org

The main issue known as wing rock was discovered during flight testing, said Paul Niewald, Boeing’s vice president of T-7 programs.

“We saw an anomaly in the data,” he said during a briefing with reporters in September at the Air Force Association’s annual conference. “We had this wing rock at 25/26 degrees angle of attack — so the left and right wing gently rock back and forth.”

Brown, speaking during a media roundtable at the confab, said the service and Boeing were addressing the issue.

“We’re working … with them to solve this together and do it at an affordable price,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything to give me the indication it’s going to go beyond the slight delay.”

Niewald told reporters later that the issue has now been resolved and the fix required no hardware changes. He touted the benefits of digital engineering in helping to solve the issue.

“We went and fixed it before the first [engineering and manufacturing development] aircraft ever flies,” he said. “That shows how we’ve been able to use digital engineering to know where those uncertainties lie.”
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I've read an article suggesting Boeing and Saab having a hard time to meet what the ACC has stated on their RFI as their requirements regarding the ATT program as well as the USN on their revised requirements for the new naval trainers. For example it was suggested that Boeing claimed that the maintenance cost would double for the Red Hawk under the new requirements which differs and is more challenging than that of the T-X. The sources cited by the article were Novemeber issues of Janes Defence Weekly and Washington technology. Has anyone got access to confirm these matters?
 
If they ask for more capability then of course the sustainment cost would increase commensurate with the added capability. The same will be true for pretty much anyone else wanting to meet those same requirements, with the T-X having an advantage in that it would likely be the newest of those and can cater to the exact requirement as opposed to trying to fit into it like a more established similar aircraft like the F/A-50.
 

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