NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Air Force is laying the groundwork to start incorporating the T-7A Red Hawk into its pilot training operations.

But the service is still about two years away from the first student pilots learning in the new, fifth-generation, Boeing-made jet. Before that can happen, the Air Force has to train its own trainers, said Air Education and Training Command deputy commander Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn.

The Air Force is now in the process of buying 351 T-7s to replace its aging T-38 Talon jets. T-38s are roughly six decades old and were designed to teach pilots to fly Vietnam-era third-generation jets, such as F-100 Super Sabres, F-105 Thunderchiefs and F-4 Phantoms, Quinn said in a Sept. 22 interview at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Space Cyber conference.

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