BAES has been awarded
a £74 million Hawk Integrated Operational Support (Hawk IOS)
contract for maintenance and technical support for the RAF and RN Hawk
fleet of more than 130 aircraft. The Hawk IOS will ensure that agreed
levels of sorties can be carried out through to 2011 whilst reducing
costs by £18 million. The three Hawk operating bases, RAF Valley, RAF
Leeming and RNAS Culdrose will be directly supported by BAES personnel
and its principal subcontractor, Babcock Defence Services. In addition
a spares service will be provided to RAF Scampton for the Red Arrows
and to MoD Boscombe Down.
A
Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) has been signed by BAES and Hellenic Aerospace
Industry (HAI) thus strengthening the position of Hawk in the
competition for the Greek air force advanced jet trainer (AJT). The MOU
would allow for the co-manufacture of Greek Hawk AJTs
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has short-listed the Hawk AJT
in its quest to select a new fast jet trainer. BAES has proposed a buy
of
new AJT Hawks or a mixture of new Hawks with an upgrade of the UAE's
existing fleet of Hawk Mk102s. An all new buy would be for about 50
aircraft. In December 2006 a successful demonstration and evaluation
visit was made by a BAES team with an AJT Hawk.
By June seven Indian Air Force (IAF) Hawk AJTs had flown at
Warton. They are the first of 24 to built at Brough. A further 42 will
be built by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bangalore. Three
aircraft flying over 200 sorties will be used at Warton to train HAL
test pilots and IAF QFIs. Maintenance technicians are also under
training.
The 200th T-45
Goshawk has been handed
over to the US Navy at St Louis. Goshawks are based at NAS Kingsville,
Texas and NAS Meridian, Mississippi.
The final
version of the F-18 radar simulator in the Royal Australian Air Force
Hawk Mk127 was recently tested by BAES test pilot Nat
Makepeace and RAAF officers at the Williamtown base.
The final
batch of Hawks for the Royal Bahrain Air Force has been delivered. The
Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the Sheikh Issa Air
Base where the Hawks were demonstrated and Prince Charles and the Crown
Prince of Bahrain flew the Hawk simulator.
