Sweden’s Saab has received an award from Boeing to produce aft fuselage systems for the T-7A Red Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT), Saab announced on 23 January 2024.
Saab noted that the order, which was booked in the fourth quarter of 2023, is worth USD 101.7 million (EUR 93.8 million).
The T-7A, jointly produced by Boeing and Saab, was selected as the new AJT for the US Air Force (USAF) in September 2018. At the time a contract was signed worth up to USD 9.2 billion to cover 351 aircraft, 46 simulators, maintenance training and support. The aircraft entered series production in February 2021.
The T-7A aft fuselage systems under this latest contract will be produced at Saab’s advanced manufacturing facility in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“What we are building is the most modern and forward-looking advanced pilot training system on the market and I am confident that this is a programme that will deliver aircraft for many years to come,” Lars Tossman, head of Saab’s Aeronautics business area, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “This order ensures the ramp-up of serial production to meet both current and future customers’ increased needs.”
The first production-representative Boeing-Saab T-7A Red Hawk, known as aircraft APT-2, arrived at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California on 8 November 2023, formally marking the start of the USAF’s developmental flight test campaign for the aircraft. A second T-7A was then delivered to Eglin AFB on 15 December 2023.
