T-45 Goshawk
ICAO HAWKThe US Navy trainer that teaches carrier landings, and the most visible member of the BAE Hawk family on ADS-B.
Flying right now
Live · 30sAirframe
- Manufacturer
- Boeing and BAE Systems
- Role
- Advanced carrier-capable jet training
- Class
- L1J — Landplane, 1 jet engine
- Crew
- 2 — instructor and student
- First flight
- 16 April 1988
- In service
- 1991
Operators airborne
About the T-45 Goshawk
The T-45 is a BAE Hawk rebuilt for the deck: strengthened undercarriage, an arrestor hook, and the approach handling a pilot needs to put an aircraft onto a moving ship. It is the last aircraft a US Navy student flies before a fleet type, and its sorties come from Kingsville and Meridian in dense clusters.
The HAWK designator it reports under covers the whole family, not just the American variant. RAF Hawk T1 and T2 trainers, the Red Arrows, Canadian CT-155s and export Hawks from Finland to India all share it, so a European Hawk appearing here is the same designator doing a very different job.
In practice the traffic on this page is overwhelmingly US Navy. The Royal Air Force flies fewer of them and transmits less consistently.
Callsign prefixes
- SABRE
- US Navy training air wing block
- SHARK
- Another recurring naval training block
- RRR
- Ascot — Royal Air Force Hawk movements
How to recognise it
- —A small single-engine jet with a mid-mounted swept wing and a tall fin.
- —The naval version sits noticeably nose-high on the ground, on much longer main gear than an RAF Hawk.
- —Training sorties are short and local; look for repeated circuits near Kingsville, Meridian or Valley.
Common questions
+ Is the T-45 the same as a BAE Hawk?
It is a heavily modified one. The Goshawk has a strengthened airframe, catapult and arrestor gear, different flaps and a redesigned undercarriage. Enough is changed that it cannot be treated as an ordinary Hawk, but both report as HAWK on ADS-B.
+ Do the Red Arrows show up on this page?
They can. Red Arrows Hawk T1s share the HAWK designator, so when they transmit ADS-B they appear here alongside the naval trainers.
+ Why do T-45s fly so many short flights?
Carrier approach training is repetitive by nature. A student flies the same pattern many times in one sortie, and the aircraft turns round quickly for the next student.