Report: Next-Gen Air Force Trainers Have ‘Serious’ Flight Concerns

Boeing T-7 Red Hawk faces a litany of issues as officials seek to move quickly.

Jack Daleo

Friday, June 26, 2026 at 04:00 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

A T-7A Red Hawk taxis to take off at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph on April 23, 2026. [Credit: U.S. Air Force/Sean Worrell]

Key Takeaways:

The T-7 Red Hawk trainer program is experiencing significant developmental and safety issues, including an inability to fly in rain and "serious" airworthiness risks for the initial 82 aircraft due to Boeing's alleged failure to provide critical technical data.
The program faces substantial cost overruns, with Boeing absorbing $3.2 billion, and potential additional taxpayer costs exceeding $1.5 billion due to new procurement strategies and financial incentives for Boeing related to data sharing disputes.
Under pressure to replace its aging T-38 fleet, the Air Force is accepting "programmatic risk of concurrency" by planning to introduce the T-7 into training with limitations, raising concerns about safety and potentially "task saturating new pilots."

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The U.S. Air Force in 2018 awarded Boeing a $9.2 billion, fixed-price contract to replace its aging T-38 Talon trainers. According to a new report, the manufacturer’s next-generation T-7 Red Hawk still cannot fly in rain—and that may be the least of its concerns.

The three-part, 7,000-word investigation from digital news site Breaking Defense includes interviews with officials from the Air Force and Boeing—as well as unnamed government sources and people familiar with the T-7 program—who paint conflicting pictures of the aircraft.