Two lieutenant colonels at Joint Base San Antonio just became the most important instructor pilots in the U.S. Air Force. On 4 June 2026, Lt. Col. Michael Trott and Lt. Col. Phillip Bourquin of the 99th Flying Training Squadron qualified as the first Air Education and Training Command pilots on the T-7A Red Hawk — the advanced trainer that will teach every future American fighter pilot how to fly. It is a milestone that sounds administrative and is anything but. Until this week, every T-7A flight at Randolph required borrowed test pilots or contractor support. Now the 99th FTS has “operational independence.” The Air Force can train its own people on its own jet, in its own squadron, on its own schedule. The T-38 Talon replacement programme just stopped being theoretical.

The End of the T-38 Era

The T-38 Talon has been training American pilots since 1961. Sixty-five years. Every F-22 pilot, every F-35 pilot, every B-2 pilot learned advanced flying in a T-38. It is one of the most successful training aircraft in history — and it is exhausted. Airframes are cracking. Maintenance hours per flight hour have been climbing for decades. The avionics belong to a different century.

The T-7A Red Hawk is Boeing’s answer: a twin-seat, single-engine supersonic trainer with a glass cockpit, embedded training systems, and — crucially — the ability to simulate fifth-generation fighter handling characteristics that the T-38 cannot replicate. A student pilot stepping from the T-7A into an F-35 will recognise the displays, the sensor fusion logic, and the fly-by-wire feel. A student stepping from the T-38 into an F-35 faces a generational culture shock.

What Comes Next

Trott and Bourquin qualified through Type-1 sorties — the initial familiarisation flights that cover takeoffs, landings, navigation, instrument approaches, and system familiarisation. Both said they intend to complete additional “seasoning” sorties before taking students. This is standard procedure: you do not put a student in the back seat until the instructor knows the aircraft cold. The 99th FTS will now build its instructor cadre internally, qualifying additional pilots through the syllabus that Trott and Bourquin have pioneered. Once the cadre is large enough, student pilot training will begin — the moment the T-7A stops being a test programme and starts being a training programme. That transition is expected within months, not years.

The Troubled Path Here

The T-7A programme has not been without turbulence. Boeing’s “digital twin” manufacturing approach — designed to accelerate production — ran into real-world problems. Delivery delays, software issues, and structural concerns pushed the timeline right. But the aircraft itself has consistently impressed pilots who have flown it, and the core promise — a modern trainer that prepares students for fifth-gen cockpits — remains intact. AETC received its first production T-7A in late 2025, with a second following in early 2026. The small fleet at Randolph is the nucleus of what will eventually be the Air Force’s primary advanced training platform, replacing hundreds of T-38s across multiple bases. Two instructor pilots, qualified in a new jet, at a single base in Texas. It does not sound like a revolution. But every F-22 pilot, every F-35 pilot, every future fighter aviator in the United States Air Force will trace their training lineage back to what happened at Randolph this week. Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine, Defence-industry.eu, FlightGlobal, MirageNews