Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
The thing about the Red Arrows is that they go around the world doing displays. This is advertising for British industry and shows what we are capable of making plus demonstrating our planes for possible customers. 1,000 Hawks have been sold around the world to foreign customers. If we were to use foreign made aircraft it would be advertising for foreign competition and a huge negative for British industry giving the impression that we can't make anything anymore. It would also be a huge kick in the teeth for British workers.
Im not sure flying round in jets North of half a century old that were never actually all that when new is much of an advert for British industry. People that write big cheques with lots of zeroes know it's only window dressing, and flimsy window dressing at that.
Surely the question should be what trainer aircraft do the RAF use to train their pilots?
Red arrows are just window dressing.
Absolutely. It needs to be single engined, capable of at least high transonic speed, stable yet agile, very robust, and ideally also capable of having a pack fitted in field to provide combat ability. Even better if its a well-known airframe, has massive parts backup, can carry the same weapons as most of our NATO chums, etc.
There are several variants of the F16 that tick all those boxes...
The Hawk was never all that as a trainer, have always been unrepresentative of types pilots will move onto in their careers, is pretty pith poor in its secondary backup combat role, and now its pretty much knackered on top of all that. If a bunch of spodes on a cycling forum can figure that out then you can bet anyone with a budget to spend who is supposed to be impressed by British industry knows it too.
We can be pretty sure the chance of a go in a Fighting Falcon will attract more recruits than the possibility of learning in a tired Hawk.