RAF pilots are being sent abroad to train due to exploding Hawk jet engines.
Problems with the Hawk T2 jets have resulted in less than half of the fleet being available for training in the UK.
Sources told The Times that they cannot fly for too long without the engines "blowing up."
As a result, the Ministry of Defence is having to pay the Americans and the Italians as much as £55million over the next three years, around £2million per pilot, so they can train them instead.
Labour MP John Spellar spoke about the jets
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On top of this, roughly £5.4million has already been spent on training each pilot in the UK, even though a large chunk of the training cannot be delivered.
Labour MP John Spellar said the Hawk programme had been "appallingly mismanaged by a stubborn RAF that will not get a grip of it" adding that the service should have invested in the next generation of training aircraft rather than allow pilots to be stuck in the training pipeline for years.
An RAF source said January last year it emerged the RAF had been forced to ground its entire fleet of Hawk T2 jets after the engines effectively "blew up" while on the runway at RAF Valley in North Wales.
It also emerged there was an issue with the Rolls-Royce engine on the jet which involved the engine blades supplied by a French company wearing out.
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The Hawk T2 jet
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The Commons defence select committee heard that a fault was reported within the engine as long ago as March 2022. This means the aircraft could only fly for 1,700 hours, instead of the expected 4,000 hours.
Over a three-year period starting last year, a total of 15 RAF pilots will be trained on the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training programme in the USA.
This is in addition to six RAF pilots who were already being trained as part of a previously funded agreement.
Furthermore, the RAF is paying the Italians to train 12 of its pilots over three years at the International Flight Training School (IFTS) as a direct result of the Hawk problem.
An MoD spokesman said: "Overseas pilot training is routine and we continue to train sufficient numbers of pilots for the front line.
"As part of the mitigation measures to manage the impact of Hawk T2 engine availability, a small additional number of UK pilots are being trained abroad."
