Key Points:AI-assisted summary
  • Saab and Boeing are increasing production of the T-7A Red Hawk advanced fighter jet.
  • The jet's aft section is produced at Saab's West Lafayette plant before final assembly by Boeing in St. Louis.
  • Saab's West Lafayette facility currently employs about 240 people, with potential for expansion.
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Executives from Swedish aerospace company Saab and U.S. aerospace business Boeing announced Thursday that production of the advanced fighter jet the companies have partnered to build partially in West Lafayette will ramp up, delivering on a long-held vision for a local Saab plant four years since it opened.

One of the five completed T-7A Red Hawk fighter jets, the latest genesis of Air Force training jets, flew into Purdue University Airport on Thursday along with Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and Micael Johansson, president and CEO of Saab. Parker and Johansson said the jets, which are assembled in St. Louis by Boeing after their aft sections have been produced in West Lafayette, will fly off assembly lines through the mid-2030s as the companies fulfill their contract with the U.S. Air Force for 351 jets.

"This will revolutionize training for not just the United States Air Force, but for Allied nations around the world, every fighter and bomber pilot in the United States Air Force will train and come through on the T-7," Parker said, standing in front of the sleek jet minted "U.S. Air Force" below the cockpit.

Saab CEO and President Micael Johansson said his company's West Lafayette facility produces most of what is behind the cockpit of the new T-7A Red Hawk fighter jet trainers, made in concert with Boeing. "It's a big portion of the aircraft that's made here," he said.

The jets built so far were made with parts from Sweden, shipped to the United States in 2022 when Saab announced it would transfer further production of the T-7's body — "aft of the cockpit," Johansson said — to the company's $50 million aerospace plant near the airport. Johansson described the facility as "very modern" and "data-driven." Shipment of the parts from West Lafayette to St. Louis is already underway.
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