BAE Systems prepares UK's first production Hawk 128 trainer for flight

[BUFF 8]

DATE:18/02/08

SOURCE:Flight International

BAE Systems prepares UK's first production Hawk 128 trainer for flight

By Craig Hoyle

 

 

BAE Systems is on track to deliver the UK's first of 28 Hawk 128 advanced

jet trainers in August, and maintains that the type has strong long-term

sales potential, despite its recent elimination from a contest in the United

Arab Emirates and an orderbook that is on course to run dry next year.

The first series production-standard Hawk 128 has had its fifth and final

software load introduced and its Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour 951 engine

installed, says Mike Corfield, BAE's UK AJT programme director. "We've

proven all the hardware and the software now, and are pretty much just going

through the final clearances," he adds.

BAE expects to achieve the aircraft's "power on" milestone this month,

before a first flight in June and its scheduled release to service in

August. Two more 128s are awaiting equipment installation, and the UK's

final example will enter its assembly jigs in December and be delivered late

next year.

UK pilots and technicians will start conversion training on the new aircraft

at BAE's Warton site in Lancashire in September, ahead of the type's entry

into squadron service at Royal Air Force base Valley in north Wales. The

company also expects to conclude talks with the Ministry of Defence within

the next few months on providing through-life support for the new fleet,

with this to build on its existing integrated operational support deal on

the UK's current Hawk T1/1A trainers.

BAE, also seeking export business for the 128, will display its comparable

Hawk new development aircraft at this month's Singapore air show. The

aircraft will then remain in the country to support further evaluation by

its Defence Science and Technology Agency as part of a three-way AJT

contest. Similar work was recently conducted with Alenia Aermacchi's M-346

and the Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50.

BAE is also eyeing emerging Hawk prospects in Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia

and Saudi Arabia, says business development executive Steve Wearden, with a

possible manufacturing joint venture also being considered with India's

Hindustan Aeronautics (Flight International, 8-14 January). The company also

hopes to secure a follow-on order to build fuselages for additional US Navy

Boeing T-45 Goshawks beyond a current production deal that will conclude in

mid-2009. "There is a strategy with the T-45 going forward," says Wearden.