Australia's F-35 Pipeline Is Quietly Bottlenecked By A 25-Year-Old Trainer Fleet Barely Keeping The Schoolhouse Open

Australia’s Project AIR 6002, the program behind a Future Lead-In Fighter Training System for the Royal Australian Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-35A pathway, is being held back by problems tied to its aging trainer fleet. The Department of Defence is engaging industry to replace the BAE Hawk 127 fleet with a program budget estimated at $3.4 billion. The RAAF’s 33 Hawks have flown for a quarter century, but the service still must choose between Boeing T-7A Red Hawk, KAI T-50 Golden Eagle, and Leonardo M-346 Master. With down-select delayed, Australia approved emergency funding of around $1 billion to keep the Hawk flying until at least 2031.