The local news tonight is covering the future of the Red Arrows.
The BAe Hawk is due to go out of service in 2030, and it’s highly likely that any replacement aircraft would be a foreign procurement. So what should the RAF do?
All this hangs on the Hawk T1 and T2 replacement.
Boeing T7, M346 and the Korean T50 are on the cards, along with Aerialis which is a UK company.
Lancasters, Spitfires and Hurricanes went out of service a long time ago, but they’re still plodding on with the RAF!
Bin them off.
I think I would favour a massive shrinkage to retain some fast jet display capability, but broadly I agree
I’ve always preferred the role demos and displays involving proper warplanes.
I also strongly suspect the Typhoon display team and F-35 displays contribute more to British defence exports these days.
No!
Outside of those inside the wire, Reds are practically the only thing that people associate and are able to see about the RAF! Kids and adults love them on the whole and they’re cool to see!
Yes they probably need a culture change but the aircraft can be updated and as for pilots making pretty patterns, never underestimate the “soft” power of marketing!
Bit of personal context… I was lucky enough to be part of the Ch role demo engineering team in ‘25.
At RIAT, the amount of money that the “dedicated” display teams have (BBMF, RAFAT) is obscene, huge personalised trucks and display, which I am sure those who went saw.
Where as our role demo relied on a small tent that is falling apart and aircraft spares from our school as part of the display with engineers simultaneously staffing the stand and then having to go, service and launch the aircraft.
I see the public appeal of the teams, there was even a super fan there with the Hawk. Red Arrows logos as well as the diamond nine tattooed all over her. Kids in the jump suits.
But the amount of money spent on them is absolutely unreal whilst other platforms are struggling with spares, personnel etc.
Don’t they also have corporate sponsorship for things like the tents, vehicles, etc?
So not all funded directly by the tax payer?
I can’t speak for all teams, but I do know the Reds are (or were, don’t know if currently) sponsored by Breitling.
I agree - to a point.
Having been to RIAT enough times i need to take my shoes and socks off to count, the RAF “role displays” were always a welcome change to the other fast jet displays whizzing back and forth making more or less noise, at fast/slow configurations. the role displays made it “real” and relatable to the audience.
but that isn’t to say i prefer that over ditching the RAFAT - they can do so much more in so many more places than a role display team.
Again, having attended RIAT the budgets are so obvious. be that the Typhoon display team right down to the Tutor, with Tucano (yes, back in the day), Firefly, and various Helicopters in between, it was clear where the money was - the RAFAT was a full time display team, everyone else did it as a hobby and pulled out their team and display from the back of a white fleet (unbranded) Transit van in comparison
certainly seem to have a long standiing arrangement with Citizen watches
There’s a culture problem within the forces writ large when it comes to display and ‘public engagement’.
If the red arrows decided they needed a couple of extra hands for a season - a tech or two, a driver, that kind of stuff, the RAF would assign them within days without a question - if the bloke running the Baltic Air Policing task in Estonia decided that he needed the same couple of extra bodies, does anyone think they’d be on their way with the same speed?
Queens funeral: some six thousand armed forces people took part in the funeral procession. That’s about 1 in 20.
Would anyone like to take a guess as to when the last time the armed forces ran a deployed Brigade level (5000ish) combined arms exercise, to you, you know, prepare for war?
Simply not a serious war-fighting culture…
Last I heard the Reds were considering the Leonardo M346 Master
They could build (assemble) them in Westlands factory in Yeovil and call them British.
Perhaps they could modernise & replace the Hawk with Protector UAVs…
Yes. I believe they do.
Was a company with no physical product.
I’d like to see either the FA-50 from South Korea, or the M346 from Italy as our future assets. And not be pocketed with Boeing…
I say this as someone who holds the Hawk in high regards…
Is Poland making their FA-50s locally? If so we could tack our order on to theirs.
One of the key points of the Red Arrows is to promote Britain ….and British goods (that’s why they use British A/C) ….If we do use another type it should / would have to be assembled in the UK ….
…or we just agree the end has come and shelve them.