In a major development that could be very beneficial for the South African Air Force (SAAF), UK-based global major aerospace and defence group BAE Systems (BAES) announced on Monday that, in a joint project with Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), it had massively extended the safe flying life for late-generation Hawk lead-in fighter-trainers. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operates the Hawk Mark (Mk) 127, which BAES describes as the most advanced standard of the Hawk.

The Hawk Mk 127 was designed for a safe flying life of at least 10 000 hours, but a combined BAES/DSTO major structural test programme on a specially modified example has extended this to 50 000 flying hours. This means that the RAAF will be able to operate its Hawks for decades to come. The company pointed out that the air forces of Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UK operated Hawks of similar standards to those of the RAAF, and that new Hawks of this advanced standard were currently being manufactured for Qatar.

“To achieve 50 000 flying hours in structural testing is five times the current clearance of the most modern Hawk in air forces across the world and more than ten times the current flying hours on most of the Australian fleet,” reported BAES International Markets head Mike Swales. “Hawk has been the world’s flying classroom, preparing more than 20 000 pilots for life in a frontline fast jet, for decades and this is proof that it has many years more safe, effective flying ahead of it with customers set to operate the aircraft well into the 2040s.”

The test programme was actually launched in February 2006 and concluded in June this year and was conducted at the DSTO’s facility in Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria, supported by BAES engineers in Brough in the UK. The aircraft used in the programme will be disassembled and its components will be subjected to another two years of in-depth inspections.

“This is a major milestone for the Hawk programme which proves there is many years more life left in the 650 aircraft we have training pilots across the globe every day,” he highlighted. The RAAF’s Hawk Mk 127 is a ‘second-generation’ development of the aircraft. The SAAF operates the Hawk Mk 120, which is also a second-generation Hawk model. This, plus Swales' comment, suggests that this operational life-extension could be applied to SAAF Hawks as well.

The SAAF acquired 24 Hawk Mk 120s. These are currently operated by 85 Combat Flying School at Air Force Base Makhado in Limpopo province.