WASHINGTON — By 2028, the Air Force expects that the T-7 Red Hawk will be flying with new pilots, heralding a modern era of training.
But an internal Air Force presentation, dated August 2025 and viewed by Breaking Defense, says that for the first several years those aircraft will come with a “serious” airworthiness risk, stemming from what the document calls “non-compliance” on the part of contractor Boeing to obtain necessary information on the training jet.
It’s one of several, previously unreported issues Air Force officials have been willing to accept to begin operations for the Red Hawk, an investigation by Breaking Defense found.
This investigation, which included interviews with sources, current and former Air Force officials and analysts, as well as a review of internal documents, provides the most detailed picture yet of the T-7’s programmatic stumbles, tensions with plane-maker Boeing and the Air Force’s plan to right the ship.
Among this investigation’s findings:
