Boeing T-7A Red Hawk

Updated: October 2026 – A small jet with only one engine but two vertical tails sweeps across the Texas plain, two people sit under the large canopy – the rear one clearly raised: that is the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk, the US Air Force’s new training jet. Here you’ll learn how to recognize it, what is behind the “digitally engineered” label, what role Saab plays and where the program stands after years of delays.

What is the T-7A Red Hawk?

The T-7A is a two-seat advanced trainer. Anyone who later wants to fly fighters or bombers in the US Air Force gets to know fast jets after basic training on propeller aircraft – formation flying, aerobatics, instrument flying, high-load maneuvers. The Red Hawk is built for exactly this stage.

It replaces the Northrop T-38 Talon. The first T-38 flew in 1959, it joined the force in 1961, and almost 1,200 were built through 1972. The T-38 is regarded as the world’s first supersonic trainer and is a classic – but a classic from the era before glass cockpits and digital flight controls. Modern fighters such as the F-35 demand different skills: interpreting sensors, handling data links, maneuvering safely at high angles of attack. The T-38 can only partly simulate that, and the fleet is aging. The US Air Force therefore keeps the remaining aircraft flying with modernization and structural programs until the successor takes over.

The T-7A was developed by Boeing in St. Louis together with the Swedish group Saab. The US Air Force selected the design in September 2018 as the winner of the T-X competition.

The history: from the T-X competition to the Red Hawk

The first thoughts on a T-38 successor go back to the mid-2000s. Budget pressure pushed the project back several times. When the US Air Force finally issued the T-X competition, several teams entered, some with modified existing trainers. Boeing and Saab took a different path and designed a completely new aircraft.

On September 13, 2016, the team unveiled its two prototypes, and on December 20, 2016, the first one, BTX-1 with the civil registration N381TX, took off for its first flight in St. Louis. In September 2018 the decision came: Boeing won the contract, worth up to $9.2 billion, for up to 351 aircraft and 46 simulators. For Boeing the price was calculated tightly – the company booked a charge that same year that was also due in part to the T-X program.

In September 2019 the jet received its name: T-7A Red Hawk. It honors the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American fighter pilot unit in the US armed forces in World War II, whose fighters were recognizable by their red-painted tails. The second part of the name recalls the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk flown by their 99th Fighter Squadron. Remarkably, the training squadron in Randolph that is now taking over the first T-7As also bears the number 99 – the 99th Flying Training Squadron carries on the tradition of the Red Tails.

For a time the type ran as the eT-7A. The “e” highlighted the digital engineering; for the production jets delivered to the force, the designation T-7A is in common use.

How to recognize the T-7A

The Red Hawk is small and has a few features that set it clearly apart from other trainers. Three observations are usually enough.

Add to that the side air intakes below the cockpit and the long wing root extensions running from the wing leading edge almost to the canopy. They help at high angles of attack and give the T-7A a profile from the front quarter that recalls small fighters. Seen from a distance, you might at first think of a scaled-down F/A-18 Hornet – only with one engine instead of two.

Technology and cockpit

The T-7A is powered by a single General Electric F404 with afterburner. The engine is an old acquaintance: the F404 family powers the classic F/A-18 Hornet, among others, and a Swedish-built derivative sits in the Saab Gripen C/D versions. The larger F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, by contrast, uses the more powerful F414. According to common figures, it delivers about three times as much thrust as the T-38’s two J85 engines combined. This surplus makes steep climbs and strong acceleration possible.

What the T-7A cannot do stands out: supersonic flight. Boeing gives an expected maximum speed of Mach 0.975. For training this hardly matters; more important are the load capability up to 8 g, angles of attack up to about 30 degrees and an altitude of up to about 45,000 feet. Boeing lists all of these performance figures as expected values – they are only finally confirmed once testing is complete.

The flight controls work digitally by fly-by-wire. They are meant to replicate the handling of modern fighters so students don’t have to relearn on the type of their later squadron. The cockpit is equipped with large displays. An open mission system allows new sensors, software and training content to be retrofitted. This includes simulated scenarios: the jet can show its occupants radar pictures or hostile aircraft that don’t actually exist.

Feature	Northrop T-38C Talon	Boeing T-7A Red Hawk
First flight	1959 (prototype)	2016 (BTX-1 prototype)
Engines	2 × General Electric J85	1 × General Electric F404
Vertical tails	1	2
Maximum speed	Supersonic	just under sonic (Mach 0.975, expected)
Flight controls	mechanical	digital (fly-by-wire)
Seating	in tandem	in tandem, rear seat raised

Digitally engineered: what it means

Hardly any military program is as strongly associated with the term “digital engineering” as the T-7A. Boeing describes design, build and testing as running along a continuous “digital thread”: everyone involved works with the same three-dimensional model, and systems are tested virtually before a part is made or a test flight scheduled.

In practice this means parts fit better during assembly because they were checked against each other on the computer beforehand, and changes flow into production and documentation without detours. Boeing itself calls the T-7A the only “digitally born” trainer program with military certification.

The flip side: a digital model doesn’t replace every insight from real flight. The delays of recent years show that even an aircraft planned through on the computer holds surprises in testing. The problems lay less in the airframe than in software and safety systems.

Saab’s share

Saab is not a mere supplier but was a partner in the design team from the start. On the production aircraft the Swedes are responsible for the aft fuselage section, that is the part housing the engine and tail, along with the associated subsystems. For manufacturing in the USA, Saab announced its own plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, in May 2019, near Purdue University. For Saab the T-7A thus becomes one of its most important pillars in the US market.

If you are interested in Saab as a manufacturer, the JAS 39 Gripen is the group’s best-known fighter; background on the company is on the page about Saab.

Program status: long testing, slow ramp-up

Originally the T-7A was meant to be operational around 2023/2024. That didn’t happen – the schedule slipped by several years. An overview of the main milestones:

When	Event
December 2016	First flight of the BTX-1 prototype in St. Louis
September 2018	Selection by the US Air Force, contract for up to 351 jets
September 2019	Name “Red Hawk” announced
February 2021	Start of the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase
April 2022	Roll-out of the first T-7A
June 2023	First flight of the first development-phase T-7A in St. Louis
September 2023	First aircraft goes to Edwards AFB for flight testing
December 2025	First T-7A with the 12th Flying Training Wing in Randolph, Texas
May 2026	Clearance for low-rate production
July 2026	US Government Accountability Office reports full-rate production slipping to 2029

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) pointed to problems with software and safety systems as early as May 2023. One issue was the escape system: the ejection seat had to be adapted to work safely for a wider range of body weights – a requirement meant to make training possible for pilots of every build. The US Air Force then pushed back the production decision several times.

Testing is under way with the 416th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards, California, with a total of five aircraft in development standard. On December 5, 2025, the T-7A with serial number 21-7005 arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, and the official handover ceremony followed on January 9, 2026. In May 2026 the US Air Force gave the green light for the first low-rate production and named 2027 as the target for initial operational capability. In the same month, leaders of the 99th Flying Training Squadron qualified as the first Air Education and Training Command pilots on the type.

Variants and export plans

Besides the T-7A for the US Air Force, Boeing is putting forward a whole series of derivatives. As of October 2026 none of them has been built; these are offers and proposals.

• T-7B / T-7 for the US Navy: Boeing is promoting the jet for the Navy’s training programs, which so far rely on the T-45 Goshawk.
• Armed versions: An advanced trainer with tactical capabilities and a light fighter are under discussion, partly under the designation F-7. A role as an adversary trainer (“aggressor”) is also mentioned.
• Export: Boeing has offered the T-7 in Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom, among others, where older trainers such as the BAE Hawk need to be replaced in each case. Serbia has also shown interest.

Facing the T-7 there are established types such as the Leonardo M-346, which already flies with several air forces in Europe and Asia. No firm export order had become known by October 2026.

The T-7A compared with other trainers

For spotters in Europe, other jet trainers are far more present than the Red Hawk. A short rundown helps with identification:

Type	Engines	Vertical tails	Typically seen
Boeing T-7A Red Hawk	1	2	USA (Edwards, Randolph, St. Louis)
Northrop T-38 Talon (sister of the F-5)	2	1	USA, training bases
BAE Systems Hawk	1	1	United Kingdom, Red Arrows, Finland
Leonardo M-346	2	1	Italy, Poland, Israel
Aero L-39 Albatros	1	1	Eastern Europe, private owners

Incidentally, the T-38 is closely related to the Northrop F-5 – both go back to the same basic concept. If you know an F-5, you will quickly recognize the slim T-38 too.

Where you can see the T-7A

Getting a Red Hawk in front of your lens is a travel mission for European spotters. The jets currently fly at a few places in the USA:

One point is especially interesting for Europeans: future fighter pilots of the German Air Force and other NATO countries traditionally learn to fly jets in Texas too – in the joint training program at Sheppard AFB, so far with the T-38. Whether and when T-7As will be used there had not been officially decided as of October 2026.

How to clearly identify American military jets is explained in the guide to US military serials. You’ll find tips on tracking military flights at Tracking military aircraft online. And what is allowed when photographing at military bases is covered in the article Photographing military airfields.

Photo tips for small, fast trainers

Trainers fly many patterns, go-arounds and landings in quick succession – ideal for photos if you find a good vantage point.

• Focal length: The T-7A is small. What fills the frame with an airliner becomes a dot with it. Plan on 400 to 600 mm.
• Light: Light liveries quickly blow out. Expose a little tighter and pick a location with the sun at your back. How to plan this in advance is explained in the article Planning sun position for your photo spot; Planetrack shows you the best light on the spot map.
• Use bursts: Patterns repeat. If one approach doesn’t work out, the next often comes a few minutes later.
• Airshows: At air days in the USA, the Red Hawk can be viewed up close on the ground. How to photograph such events at their best is covered in Photographing airshows.

For an overview of the fighter and training jets you encounter in Europe, see the article Recognizing fighter jets in Europe.

Common mix-ups

Conclusion

The T-7A Red Hawk is the US Air Force’s first completely new training jet in decades – developed by Boeing and Saab, digitally designed and with a cockpit that prepares pilots for the world of modern fighters. The road into service was rockier than planned: software, the escape system and testing have delayed the program by years. As of October 2026 the first aircraft is at Randolph, low-rate production is cleared, and full production follows at the earliest toward the end of the decade.