Boeing said Friday that quality problems with parts slated for the T-7A Red Hawk training jet mean it would delay by several months delivering the following test aircraft to the Air Force.
Boeing can be now planning to begin low-rate initial production on the T-7 in mid-2024, several months later than the corporate’s original plan. Boeing vice chairman and T-7 program manager Evelyn Moore told Defense News Friday that provide chain issues were also why the corporate will postpone the planned start for its production schedule.
Boeing’s contract with the Air Force requires it to deliver the fourth and fifth engineering and manufacturing development jets in December 2023 and January 2024, Moore said.
Nonetheless, Moore said, the faulty parts problem now means the fourth jet will probably be delivered later this month, and the fifth jet around March or April.
“We’ve struggled with some part challenges which have caused delays” on those two jets, Moore said. “We’re really specializing in safety and quality, and we are attempting to get those jets delivered within the near term.”
The Air Force plans to purchase 351 T-7s from Boeing by 2034 to switch its fleet of aging T-38 jet trainers. The T-7 is designed to emulate fifth-generation fighters just like the F-35 and make it easier for the service to coach recent pilots to fly fighters and bombers. The Air Force awarded Boeing a $9.2 billion contract in 2018 to construct the T-7 fleet in addition to provide simulators and supply other support.
The Air Force told Defense News it didn’t immediately have a comment on the T-7 delays.
Moore wouldn’t detail the variety of parts that had problems, but said they were multiple parts of various sizes from several different suppliers. Boeing needed to send some faulty parts back to their original manufacturer to be repaired, she said, and suppliers have been fixing the parts quickly.
The fourth jet now has all of its vital parts installed, Moore said, and Boeing expects the “handful” of remaining fixed parts for the fifth jet to reach over the following few weeks.
Moore said Boeing has a high quality team working with its suppliers to grasp what went unsuitable with the parts and address the issues.
Boeing is now assembling the brand new T-7 production line at its St. Louis facility, she added, and expects that to be done by mid-2024. Shortly after that production line is prepared, she said, Boeing plans to begin assembling LRIP T-7s.
A Government Accountability Office report in May 2023 said Boeing planned to begin assembling its first production T-7 in early 2024.
Moore said Boeing may very well be able to deliver the primary production T-7 in 2025, though she said there may be a probability it may very well be 2026.
Boeing is required to begin delivering T-7s 10 months after the Air Force issues an LRIP award, which could are available February 2025. Moore said that by starting production before the LRIP award, the corporate could deliver jets before its 10-month deadline.
The Air Force expects to make a Milestone C decision on whether to supply the T-7 in February 2025, and for deliveries to begin in December 2025. That planned production decision timeline is about two years later than the Air Force originally intended.
GAO raised concerns in its 2023 report about potential increased risk from having the T-7′s development, testing and production phases overlapping. The auditing agency warned this approach can result in rising costs or schedule delays if problems are present in testing that then should be fixed on the production line.
Moore acknowledged concurrency is usually a danger, but noted T-7s have carried out greater than 500 flights thus far and is about 60% finished with its flight testing process, reducing the danger of overlapping development and production.
“We’ve been flying the T-7 for several years, collecting data [and] integrating that data into recent software releases,” Moore said. “It’s a risk, but we’re managing and mitigating that risk.”
Moore said Defense Contract Management Agency officials are already conducting oversight inspections on components slated for production T-7s.
Boeing delivered the primary three of 5 planned engineering and manufacturing development jets to the Air Force in 2023. One is now undergoing flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California; one other is anticipated to wrap up climate testing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida this month. Boeing delivered the third aircraft in December, and it’s expected to fly to Edwards this month.
The fourth and fifth test jets now in the ultimate phases of construction will stay at Boeing’s facility in St. Louis, Missouri, Moore said, and will probably be used to ascertain how well maintenance procedures match the instructions specified by the jet’s technical manuals.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.