The Red Arrows

Out walking the pooch this morning, and we got our own little display.....TBH I see them almost every day when they're up and about over Waddington.

Picture quality a bit poor, but not bad from a mobile phone.

 

A superb catch John. Right place, right time and all that.

Thanks for posting!

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

Usual jingoistic nonsense from the Sun, for which Starmer appears to have fallen hook line & sinker!

The Italians extracted themselves from the Russian connection 25 years ago since when the M-346 and the initially related Russian Yak-130 have followed entirely different development paths. M-346 has been bought by Italy, Singapore, Israel, & Poland and is under consideration by others.

Leonardo, the current company responsible for its development, have proposed the latest version, the M-346 Block 20, as a trainer for countries involved in the Tempest programme (6th generation fighter) led by BAe Systems. That includes Italy, Sweden & Japan. Leonardo has a considerable manufacturing base in the UK building helicopters, having acquired Westland years ago.

Point is that at present the only "British" option seems to be a "paper"aeroplane, that attracted some RAF interest and R&D funding back in 2021/22 and, despite speculation at the time, for which no order has followed thus far. A protoype might fly in 2026 (delayed from 2024). This from 2021 & 2024.
AERALIS chosen by Royal Air Force to deliver research and development of advanced modular aircraft – AERALIS
Aeralis unveils common core fuselage design for modular aircraft family

Other options might be the Boeing-Saab T-7 Red Hawk manufactured wholly in the USA. Or the South Korean KAI T-50 amongst others.

AIUI the Red Arrow Hawk T.1 have enough fatigue life to fly until 2030 albeit with ever increasing cost and shrinking spares supply. More of a pressing issue seems to be the Hawk T.2 trainers which still have major reliability issues. Lack of availability of that type has seen some RAF pilot training exported to the USA and Italy in the last few years. Sadly, I think the Hawk has reached the end of its development days, with BAe having no interest in a highly competitive trainer market.
“We don’t get what we need from Hawk today,” says the Chief of the Air Staff - AGN


This article summarises the dilemma that the RAF now faces (from just a few days ago). Given Monday's statement, who knows where we now stand.
Can AERALIS reignite UK aerospace design with their trainer?

Better not say anything else in case i stray too far into politics!!!