Red Arrows costs increase by 70% in just 4 years – but will MoD replace ageing Hawk jet?_L
Maintaining the Hawk jets, some of which are 50 years old, is becoming unaffordable . A British upstart is waiting in the wings, but will the cash-strapped MoD finally bite the bullet?
THEY continue to draw crowds wherever they fly, but the RAF’s Red Arrows are becoming increasingly unaffordable, new figures have revealed.
With many of the ageing BAE Hawk T1 planes now more than half a century old, maintenance costs have increased from an annual £13,3m in 2020 to £27.7 last year – a staggering 70% hike in just four years.
The eye-watering £84k-a-day sum was revealed by procurement minister Maria Eagle last week.
And it comes at a time when the Ministry of Defence needs every penny to meet the double-whammy challenge posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia and US President Donald Trump’s decision to shift his military might away from Europe and focus on China, instead.
Technically, the squadron’s 16 jets can remain flying until 2030, according to the MoD.
But privately, senior RAF sources with connections to the RAF’s Aerobatic Team – which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year – believe they won’t last that long.
A slightly newer version of the nimble fighter jet, the T2, is used to teach pilots the finer points of fast jet flying for they graduate to Typhoons and F-35s.
But cases of the T2’s engines “blowing up” have led to severe delays in flight training, and were behind proposals – revealed exclusively by the Sunday Express last year – for all RAF pilots to receive the training in the US.
So exasperated is the RAF’s Chief of the Air Staff , Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton. that in November he called for all T2’s to be replaced “as soon as we can.”
A substitute has yet to be chosen, with aviation giants Boeing, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin and SAAB all working to develop light jets of their own versions.
But a new British upstart may well beat them to the punch.
Aeralis’ Phoenix light jet aircraft platform, fondly known as the “Lego plane”, has the advantage that it can be deftly adapted to suit a variety of roles, from advanced fighter training to aggressor to providing crucial “red air” – where pilots mimic the tactics of enemy air forces during war exercises. There is even an uncrewed/UAV version.
“The way Airbus changed the airline market and made it easy for people to fly to Malaga for £60 is through the versatility of its fleet,” said Aeralis’ ceo and founder Tristan Crawford, formerly a project leader with European aviation titan.
“We are the only programme both in the UK and Europe which is developing a new jet trainer solution that is targeting at changing the whole so-called through-life cost of jet trainers.”
That versatility could see Aeralis supply as many as 50 planes to the RAF, it is selected.
And the Phoenix could be sporting a different red, white and blue, too.
With France’s Patrouille de France (PAF) Aerobatic display team now eyeing up replacements for its 50-year-old Franco-German Alphajets, Paris is looking to team up with the UK or Spain.
So Aeralis recently set up a French subsidiary at Issy-Les-Moulineaux, near Paris, in what an editorial in French newspaper Figaro this week termed a “bold gamble”
Crawford added: “Currently, everything’s on pause while we await the outcome of the strategic defence review, and we anticipate that the budgetary position is going to be very challenging, when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money.
“But whatever the defence review does or doesn’t commit to, the reality is that the whole thing is going to grind to a halt.
“And if a replacement isn’t found soon, we are going to have a lot of empty cockpits in a few years’ time. ”
