Two BAE Systems Hawk 128 advanced jet trainers left the UK manufacturer's Warton site in Lancashire on 10 August for a more than two-week deployment that will include their assessment for operations below the United Arab Emirates' Lockheed Martin F-16E/F fighters.
The assessment phase of the deployment is expected to include 36 flights over a nine-day period, with the Hawk test to follow recent evaluations of the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 and Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50.
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BAE had previously expected to deploy its candidate aircraft to the Gulf early next month, but a company source says the evaluation timetable has been compacted to complete the process before the Islamic festival of Ramadan starts on 13 September.
The UAE took delivery of 47 earlier-model Hawks between 1983 and 1995, and now operates 36 examples, according to Flight's MiliCAS database. The Hawk 128 design under consideration is already in production for the UK Ministry of Defence, which is to receive 28 of the aircraft from late next year.
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Source: FlightGlobal.com
