The US Air Force is currently planning to order at least 100 more “Advanced Tactical Trainers” (ATT) and possibly even hundreds more in batches of 50. This is in addition to the 351 T-7A Red Hawks built by Boeing and Saab, which were ordered at the end of 2018 as part of the TX program (Military News reported).
A corresponding Request for Information (RFI) was published on October 12, as part of a larger reorientation of US fighter pilot training. However, the new jets would likely not only be used to train pilots, but would also take on additional tactical roles as light combat aircraft and as an enemy actor (“aggressor”) as an extension of the “Adversary Air Program” (also known as “Red Air”). This would allow the US Air Force to “download” expensive hours from costly fighter aircraft to much cheaper platforms. 
“Reforge” initiative
The robust parameters required for the planned procurement of an ATT show that the new jet trainer(s) are likely to support the so-called “Reforge” initiative, a completely new training concept presented by the Air Combat Command (ACC). The concept was presented at the beginning of 2019 by US Air Force General Mike Holmes, head of the ACC. He called for radical changes in view of the continuing shortage of pilots: “Pilot training in the 1930s took twelve months and – despite GPS, glass cockpits, autopilots, various simulators and digitally supported flight controls – it still takes twelve months today.” Currently, a future US fighter pilot goes through a three-phase Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) process that begins with actual flying in the second phase, using the T-6A Texan-II turboprop trainer. The third phase, also called Lead-In Flight Training (LIFT), currently involves more time on the T-6A before switching to the old T-38 Talon trainer jet, which the T-7A will replace. At this point, pilots now move on to the introductory course in the basics of air combat, which is conducted by a Formal Training Unit (FTU) and provides experience with the particular frontline fighter jet they are assigned to.
Holmes’ “Reforge” plan will radically overhaul this rather complex process, with future fighter pilots leaving directly for their future operational fighter squadron after completing the first two phases of UPT. Once at their frontline unit, they would continue to fly the T-7A (or the new ATT) before transitioning to their assigned fighter aircraft at the same location. At the same time, the training requirements currently placed on frontline unit equipment would be reduced. The hope is that the revised system will speed up the process of getting newly trained pilots into frontline cockpits, with less movement between different bases. The simplified training should help make a career as a fighter pilot more attractive at a time of significant manpower shortages in the USAF.
“We can do better”
“The fact is that our pilot training systems have not changed in six decades,” says Major General Craig Wills, who with the 19th Air Force commands one of the most important elements of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC), an organization charged with training more than 30,000 U.S. and allied students annually. Wills is one of the most senior officers faced with the difficult task of overhauling USAF pilot training. “If someone who flew the F-100 Super Sabre decades ago traveled back in time and came here to Randolph Air Force Base today, they would immediately find their way around our curriculum. Well, maybe it’s because it’s pretty perfect – or maybe it’s because we’ve gotten comfortable with the way we do things. I would argue that it’s the latter. When students arrive for pilot training, they are given exactly the same tools they have had for decades, an aircraft manual and posters of the cockpit hanging out the front. OK, they’re projected today – but we can do better in 2021!” According to Wills, the USAF has no choice but to transform the way it trains aircrew by using new technologies and new processes and ensuring that every hour in the air is optimized: “We need a very ‘crisp’ way of teaching. We don’t have room for five to ten assignments in a curriculum that students don’t need. Because it’s the scale of what we do that is phenomenal. In our system, the entire pilot training base has to fly an average of 250 to 300 sorties a day to stay on schedule. But we had a huge winter storm this year and lost almost 8,000 sorties in two weeks in UPT.” So both commanders point out that they have been stuck in certain patterns for too long. So they are trying to take a fresh look at training to build something new that makes more sense. General Holmes says: “The big concern in our community is that we’re trading too many live flight hours for simulators – that affects all parts of the business. But the most important changes we are making are not about the technology, but about the learning models and the design of entire teaching systems. The current ‘assembly line process’ needs to evolve and move away from an inherent pursuit of as much uniformity as possible.”
The background to this is that the availability of the T-7A and a new ATT should help to increase the number of actual flying hours that young pilots receive. In recent months, there have been several concerns expressed (at specialist conferences and presentations) that a reduction in “life” flying hours in conjunction with an increasing dependence on simulators would have led to an increase in “life” mishaps and accidents, including those relevant to flight safety. Against this background, it also becomes clearer where the ATT we are now looking for would fit in. While the T-7A is being procured, at least initially, as a direct replacement for the T-38 and is tailored to the LIFT part of the syllabus, the ATT would have more operational capabilities, making it a more suitable stepping stone to a frontline type. Potentially it would also be suitable for advanced training to reduce the demand for expensive fifth generation types, which are extremely expensive to fly and maintain. Embedding advanced trainers already in these units would help to reduce costs and save cell hours. All the more so in those units that currently have to fly T-38s, for example to enable pilots of the B-2A Spirit stealth bomber (in future the B-21) or the U-2S Dragon Lady spy plane to train basic pilot skills and build up personal flying hours accounts. And even for mere “sparring” tactics training of prospective Raptor pilots, two or three of the perhaps 100 operational F-22s worldwide (out of a total of 182 aircraft) do not have to be flown.
Possible secondary role
Which brings us to the equally prominent aspect of the envisaged ATT. This would allow trainers to perform “aggressor” missions in parallel or later – despite the considerable purchase of tens of thousands of hours of enemy presentation from private companies – when training units are co-located with advanced training jets at operational bases. All of these types of missions would be supported by the same synthetic-virtual training aids, including simulators, that are already in advanced stages for the T-7. https://militaeraktuell.at/red-air-den-feind-auslagern/ The USAF estimates that with up to 200 ATTs (in addition to the 350 T-7s), it could also potentially meet a significant portion of its “Red Air” requirements. After all, the Air Force has contracted with seven different private contractors to provide “red” air support at bases across the country. This is likely to remain the practice as long as the adapted Mirages, Skyhawks, ‘Hunters and soon second-hand F-16As remain available. For the time being, they could be supplemented with ATT and replaced later. Currently, the USAF only has two such squadrons at Nellis (the “colorful” F-15s are history) as well as those T-38s which, as mentioned, are already taking over sparring roles for the F-22s of the 1st Fighter Wing. Ultimately, it should be possible to “switch” the ATT between flight school and aggressor as required, which would enable further savings in resources. In the long term, new, unmanned “red-air” platforms could also be used, an interesting area that is likely to rapidly gain in importance – keyword “manned-unmanned teaming”.
In this regard, it must be recalled that on the eve of the 6th generation of fighters, the US Air Force is finalizing a study on the optimal mix of its tactical fleets in general, a subject on which Militär Aktuell has also reported on in the past. “Reforge” will play a major role here, as it aims to reorganize the training of pilots before they reach the final units, as well as the way these squadrons conduct certain types of training once they arrive. This means that the importance of the ATT – and arguably the T-7A before it – will be felt throughout the USAF’s fighter segment.
Which models are suitable?
In addition to a completely new design, the additional aircraft type could also be an upgraded T-7A Red Hawk. The USAF has already stated that it will examine designs from all potential suppliers that meet the (extended) requirements. Also, the planned influx does not necessarily have to be limited to a single platform. The motivation behind the RFI is apparently to have a cost-effective training platform with a cockpit that is representative of an advanced operational jet such as the F-35. In any case, the planned procurement of 351 T-7A aircraft appears to be insufficient to meet all future jet training requirements as envisioned in “Reforge”. For example, the Air Force is looking for external hardpoints to equip with training weapons, electronic warfare pods, air combat maneuver recording pods (ACMI pods) and external fuel tanks. A compact radar could be another option for the jet, and the RFI also specifically mentions that the installation of an infrared search and track sensor (IRST) is being considered.
As for the T-7A, Boeing and Saab suggested even before the contract was awarded that the platform – itself the only new development to the T-X program at the time – would also be suitable for an attack role, and the ACC even discussed the possibility of a more “fighter-representative” derivative of the “Red Hawk,” unofficially referred to as the F/T-7X. Deliveries of the basic T-7A were scheduled to begin in 2023 and initial operational capability was to be achieved at the Air Education and Training Command the following year. There have been some issues, including a wing wobble around the longitudinal axis, which Boeing recently reported and which could be resolved with a software fix. There were also production delays due to Covid-related supply difficulties. As a result, the decision on full production (referred to as “Milestone-C”) for the T-7 has now been postponed to the 2023 financial year. Militär Aktuell also discussed the new RFI by telephone with Leonardo who offered the M346 in the T-X program at the time. Vengono is pretty sure that it will be able to meet the extended requirements for an ATT with its flagship, which has now matured into the M346FA and has already been sold. And then there is the Korean T-50, which was also defeated at the time and which – unlike the winning T-7A, of which only the first three machines are under construction – also exists in a production-ready form. This means that, like the M-346, it would be available almost immediately for a “reforge” demo if required, at least to evaluate elements of the “reforge” concept. In the past, the Air Force has looked at leasing four to eight T-50s as part of the RFX program, a proof-of-concept experiment in support of Reforge. However, nothing has been signed and it is not yet clear whether the current RFI has led to a revision or abandonment of this idea.
Just a few days later, it was announced that the US Navy was also about to publish a kind of specification for a new advanced jet trainer, probably similar to the USAF’s ATT. What the US Navy calls a “Tactical Surrogate Aircraft” is described by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWC-AD), more precisely by the Specialized and Proven Aircraft Program Office (PMA-226), as a two-seater “fighter type”, capable of acting as a so-called “companion trainer” and as an enemy actor. Initially, 64 units are to be produced in the financial years 2024 or 2025.
