In 2026, two new display pilots will join the RAF Red Arrows to replace those who completed their tour with the team, while 2024’s Red 6 returns to the squadron as Red 10.
Two brand new pilots will join the red arrows beginning with next year’s exhibition season, while one of the team’s most prominent roles will also change hands as they welcome back a familiar face.
Squadron Leader Stu Roberts first joined the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (RAFAT), commonly known as the Red Arrows, in 2022. His selection followed a successful spell with the RAF’s Typhoon force, which saw him deploy operationally to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In the 2024 season, Roberts led the team’s famous synchronized pair as Red 6, participating in the crowd-pleasing high-speed crossover passes alongside Red 7.
After three years as part of the display team and one year as an instructor on the Hawk, Roberts has been chosen as the next Red 10. Red 10’s most visible role is on the ground at air shows providing team commentary; however, he will also fly the team’s primary backup aircraft while accompanying the nine display aircraft to each location. The tenth aircraft also joins the rest of the team during flights, and a photographer can use the back seat to capture air-to-air images of the entire formation.
“My reaction to finding out I had been cast in the role of Network 10 was a mix of excitement and fear,” Roberts said. “I’m looking forward to getting out with the team, but I’m keenly aware that I have big shoes to fill after my predecessor’s excellent four years as the show’s familiar voice.”
He added: “Exhibition flying for three years with the team was one of the most challenging and rewarding flights I have ever done. Flying on both the left and right sides of the formation, as well as in Synchro, gives me a great idea of what the team is trying to achieve during winter training and the season. I have a pretty good idea of what the role entails from an operational perspective, overseeing the exhibition and providing feedback. However, there is a lot of work behind the scenes to organize the exhibition schedule. exhibition, ensuring that exhibition sites are suitable and liaising with event organisers.
Show pilots
Joining the Red Arrows as ‘rookie’ pilots are Flight Lieutenants Matt Brighty and Chris Deen, who will assume the positions of Red 2 and Red 3 respectively.
Flt Lt Brighty is no stranger to the airshow calendar, becoming the first pilot to have flown with both the Red Arrows and the RAF Typhoon Display Team. Initially flying the Tornado GR4 operationally, it was converted to the Typhoon in 2017 and served on deployments to the Falkland Islands and the Baltic Air Policing mission. Brighty flew in the Typhoon display during the 2023 season, often using the hugely popular and recognizable ‘Blackjack’ scheme display jetZJ914 series.
“As a child I was often taken to airshows and of course the Reds were always the highlight of the show and it was obvious, even then, that they held a special place in the British psyche,” Brighty said. “That desire deepened when I first tried the controls of a light aircraft and developed an admiration for formation flying in particular. There are many aspects of the job that I know I will find enormously satisfying and enjoyable, but I think the main thing is knowing that the displays and flyovers make the people who look at them smile.”
Lieutenant Chris Deen had a similar path to Brighty, starting operationally in the Tornado GR4 before advancing to the Typhoon FGR4. However, between these two positions, Deen secured a position in the US Navy under an exchange program. Joining Strike Fighter Squadron 122 (VFA-122), ‘the Flying Eagles’, he received instructions on how to fly the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and later became an instructor on the aircraft.
Deen had already unsuccessfully applied to join the team, so his selection this year was very good news: “The year before, I had experienced the disappointment of not being selected, so to finally know it was going to happen was incredible.”
“I remember, as a child, watching the Red Arrows unfurl in Falmouth Harbor and being amazed at how they launched from the hills and then seemingly grazed the tops of the masts, or glided at low speed over the water and around St Mawes Castle. I remember thinking it looked so incredible and I’ve obviously held on to that all these years,” he added.
Back to basics
Both new display pilots have discussed the massive change they face between flying the advanced fly-by-wire Typhoon and the comparatively extremely simple Hawk T1. The Red Arrows have operated the Hawk T1 since 1979 and are now the only Royal Air Force unit still flying them, with training squadrons having moved to the new Hawk T2.
“It’s been a lot of fun to get back into the cockpit of such a simple airplane,” Lt. Deen said. “We’ve had a couple of backseat flights with the team during their final displays of the 2025 season and it felt a little more real when it occurred to us that we’d have to do it ourselves in the very near future.”
Brighty commented: “It’s been fantastic to fly the Hawk again, it’s a fantastic little aircraft. It’s been humbling at times to have to do without the luxury of things like a head-up display, but it’s slowly coming back. Flying with the team and performing formation aerobatics is very much a return to pure handling skill. The modern top-of-the-line fast jets, which we’ve just come from, are arguably much easier to fly in pure handling terms, due to to technological advances in its design.
The Hawk T2 only has 10% in common with the Hawk T1, this and more in this fascinating interview with an RAF Hawk pilot https://t.co/N4u7tqg2Be pic.twitter.com/xv1oEL8Ehi
– Aviation news, history and satire from Hush-Kit (@Hush_Kit) May 12, 2019
Using existing spare parts and surplus Hawk T1 aircraft, the Red Arrows will continue to operate the venerable aircraft until 2030. The replacement will likely follow suit with any future decisions regarding the early replacement for the Hawk T2which were originally due to retire in 2040. We’ve covered extensively the RAF’s desire to move away from the Hawk, and there are a dizzying number of options, all with their complex positives and negatives, that the service must consider.
Until then, the Red Arrows continue to operate their signature red Hawk T1s.
