Saab Ships T-7A Aft Airframe Section to Boeing Facility for Final Assembly

Saab said today it shipped the first T-7A Red Hawk jet’s aft airframe section to its partner Boeing.

This 15 April 2021 shipment is from Saab’s Linköping site in Sweden to Boeing in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. On completion of the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) production phase, Saab’s brand new facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, will undertake Saab’s production of the aft sections for the T-7A program.

The aft fuselage was designed and built by Saab, under the T-7A partnership with Boeing. Upon arrival in St Louis, the Saab aft section will be spliced to the forward fuselage, prior to installation of the wings, fins and tail assembly to become a complete static test airframe. This airframe will be used for structural testing on the ground during the EMD phase of the program.

The T-7A Red Hawk is an all-new advanced pilot training system designed for the U.S. Air Force to train the next generation of combat pilots for decades to come. The aircraft has benefited from Saab and Boeing’s “breaking the norm” approach to military aircraft design, engineering and production, which saw the preceding T-X aircraft go from concept to first flight in just 36 months.