Washington: The US Air Force is preparing to declare its T-7 Red Hawk training jet ready for production in days, following years of delays, an Air Force official overseeing the programme said.
The T-7 will train new generations of fighter and bomber pilots as it replaces the Air Force’s aging T-38 Talon, which entered service in 1961. But the production decision, also known as Milestone C, comes over two years later than initially projected, due both to design woes at Boeing and a service strategy to accelerate the programme.
“Milestone C is monumental,” Rodney Stevens, the Air Force’s programme executive officer for training, said. “Essentially, what we’re saying is, we’re confident in the design of the aircraft that we have, and that we’re ready to start proving that we can produce the aircraft at rate to meet the inventory needs of Air Education and Training Command.”
Though Milestone C is a big step, the programme can’t “rest on its laurels,” he added.
