I nearly spat out my morning coffee when I heard this one. The Red Arrows – Britain's actual pride and joy – were almost replaced with bloody Russian planes. Like, are you kidding me?
Our PM swooped in today (thank God) to block what might've been the most embarrassing military decision since... well, I can't even think of a comparison that wouldn't get me fired. Sir Keir was at some Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull when he put his foot down about teh whole mess.
When Russian jets almost took over our skies
Here's the shocker – RAF bigwigs were seriously considering ditching our aging Hawks for these M-346 jets that were originally Moscow's brainchild. I showed my dad (ex-RAF himself) this news and he just stared at me for about 20 seconds before muttering "absolute lunacy."
After The Sun exposed this frankly outrageous plan, Starmer slammed on the brakes harder than I did when a fox ran in front of my car last winter.
When asked if Putin's blood money would ever fund our beloved aerial display team, Keir was crystal clear: "Yes, of course, that will be uppermost in my mind. I can give you that guarantee."
He added: "It's very, very important that we don't have Russian influence in the Red Arrows or anything else for that matter."
How did we even get here?!
The whole mess started back in 2020 when the BAE Hawk factory in Yorkshire shut its doors. I remember driving through that area in 2021 and seeing the empty buildings – felt like a ghost at a family reunion, just wrong and depressing.
Since 1954, our Red Arrows have only flown British-made jets. From the Folland Gnat to the current Hawks we all love watching tear through summer skies. Their predecessors, the Black Arrows, used Hawker Hunters.
But time waits for no plane.
The £4K question nobody wants to answer
The current Hawk T1s are basically on life support and will be retired by 2030. I spoke to an engineer at an airshow last summer who told me maintaining them is becoming a nightmare – "Like trying to keep a classic car running when the parts factory burned down in the 90s," was how he put it.
The newer T2 Hawks aren't doing much better. They've had so many engine problems that pilots joke about packing extra underwear on training flights. And even these are only expected to last until 2040.
RAF chief Sir Rich Knighton admitted last November: "I would like to replace the Hawk T2 as soon as we can." Yeah, no kidding, mate.
So what now?
Our best hope seems to be this Bristol company called Aeralis. They're supposedly the leading UK contender, but they haven't even rolled out a prototype yet. My cousin works in aerospace and when I asked him about Aeralis last Christmas, he just raised his eyebrows and said "ambitious timeline" while reaching for another mince pie. Not exactly a vote of confidence.
Other options include trying to resurrect the BAE Hawk somehow (zombie plane, anyone?), going American with a Boeing trainer, or buying the Korean KAI T-50 Golden Eagle.
Listen. I've been watching the Red Arrows since my dad first took me to an airshow in 1997. I was five, and I still remember the roar and that perfect red smoke trailing behind them. The thought of them flying around in planes with any connection to Putin's Russia makes me feel slightly ill.
At least Keir got this one right. Some traditions are worth protecting, even at a cost.
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Did you miss our previous article...
https://hellofaread.com/politics/brits-just-got-shafted-on-evs-again-keirs-halfarsed-plan-wont-save-us-from-trumps-trade-war
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