US Navy restarts T-45C flights

On Monday 31 October 2022, the US Navy resumed T-45C Goshawk flight operations after a safety pause of more than two weeks.

The entire fleet of 193 T-45C Goshawks was grounded after the discovery of an engine blade failure. Some aircraft will remain grounded because the engine blades do not meet the manufacturer’s (Rolls Royce) engine specifications.

The rest of the Goshawk flight operations will stay paused while the US Navy and Rolls Royce continue to analyse engineering data on the “non-conforming parts.”

The Goshawk is used for intermediate and advanced portions of the Navy/Marine Corps Student Naval Aviator strike pilot training programme with Training Air Wing (TAW) One ('A-xxx') at NAS Meridian (MS) and Training Air Wing (TAW) Two ('B-xxx') at NAS Kingsville (TX). Both wings control two training (VT) squadrons each. VT-7 Eagles and VT-9 Tigers report to TAW-1, whilst VT-21 Red Hawks and VT-22 Golden Eagles report to TAW-2.

In 2008, the T-45C also began operation in the advanced portion of Navy/Marine Corps Student Naval Flight Officer training track for strike aircraft with Training Squadron (VT) 86 Sabre Hawks ('F-6xx) at NAS Pensacola (FL). A small number of the aircraft is also operated by the Naval Air Systems Command (NASC) with Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 Salty Dogs/Strike ('SD-20x') at Naval Air Station Patuxent River (MD).

Photo by Manolito Jaarsma (Scramble Archive)