The Hawk trainer aircraft has been a UK defence export success story, but with domestic production lines closing four years ago the skills and manufacturing capacity which had built up over decades will prove challenging and costly to regenerate. We recognise that innovative training solutions, including modular aircraft and synthetics, may offer new opportunities for industry; but we find the failure to capitalise on the success of Hawk remarkably short-sighted and deeply regrettable. (Concl...

The Hawk trainer aircraft has been a UK defence export success story, but with domestic production lines closing four years ago the skills and manufacturing capacity which had built up over decades will prove challenging and costly to regenerate. We recognise that innovative training solutions, including modular aircraft and synthetics, may offer new opportunities for industry; but we find the failure to capitalise on the success of Hawk remarkably short-sighted and deeply regrettable. (Conclusion, Paragraph 82) Workforce and industrial capacity Type: conclusion | Number: 12 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: The Programme of Record for Hawk T2 was for an out of service date (OSD) of 2040, which allowed for time potentially to design and build a follow- on successor for Hawk in the Advanced Jet Training role. However, recent events have led to an investigation of Hawk output and likely performance to tha