Navy’s T-45 Replacement Will Not Be Capable of Making Carrier Landing Touch and Goes
5th February 2026
The U.S. Navy has shown no signs of reversing course on major changes to its pipeline for new naval aviators in its latest draft requirements for a replacement for its T-45 Goshawk jet trainers. The Navy has already axed carrier qualifications from the syllabus for prospective tactical jet pilots and has plans to significantly alter how other training is done at bases ashore. These decisions have prompted concerns and criticism, but the service argues that advances in virtualized training and automated carrier landing capabilities have fundamentally changed the training ecosystem.
This is a very disturbing development. No ‘virtualized training’ can match the effectiveness of actually Doing It.