In September 2018, the USAF selected the Boeing and Saab offer to design its new advanced trainer aircraft as part of the TX program. About 350 T-7A Redhawk are planned in total, as well as around fifty simulators. However, the new aircraft should not be operational before 2024. However, by then, the US Air Force plans to radically change the training program of its pilots. In order to be able to test its new equipment and procedures, the USAF should soon lease a small number of aircraft with capacities similar to those of the T-7 Red Hawk. Ironically, it is therefore the devices that have lost the TX competition that are now being considered as part of this leasing program called RFX.
Until the end of March, it is the T-50 of the Korean KAI which was envisaged under an agreement with the American service company Hillwood Aviation. Based in Texas, this company would have bought or leased in South Korea a fleet of four to eight T-50 Golden Eagles, to then deliver 3000 to 4500 hours of annual flight to the USAF over a period of five years. As a reminder, the T-50A Golden Eagle offered by Lockheed Martin and KAI was the main competitor of the future T-7A Red Hawk from Boeing / Saab as part of TX.
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