Tag Archives: at-6

Brazilian Super Tucano Wins US Air Force Contract

The US Air Force announced Sierra Nevada Corp, in alliance with Brazil’s Embraer, has won the contract to provide the Afghan Air Force with a light attack aircraft.  The contract has a very specific dollar figure:

The firm-fixed-price contract is worth $427,459,708…Work will be completed by Feb. 26, 2019, and the first delivery order is expected to be complete by April 2015.

The Super Tucano was competing only with Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6.  The aircraft for this contract will reportedly be built in Florida.

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Air Force to Choose Afghan Plane without Flying It

News reports were aghast recently that the Air Force has decided to choose a Light Attack aircraft for delivery to the Afghan Air Force — which has undergone an arduous contract dispute already — without conducting a flyoff.

The Air Force will choose a winner in its troubled Light Air Support competition without actually flying the two contending planes, the Embraer Super Tucano and the Hawker-Beechcraft AT-6…

The decision puts the Air Force acquisition process back in the spotlight, where it has only suffered in the past.

Air Force Cancels Light Attack Aircraft Contract

The much ballyhooed attempt by the US Air Force to provide Afghanistan with a light attack aircraft recently hit another roadblock.

Prior to December, there were two contractors vying for the award — Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 and Embraer’s Super Tucano. In December, the Air Force removed Hawker from the competition and awarded the contract to the sole remaining bidder.

Hawker protested, and then sued.  The Air Force Read more

USAF to Provide Light Attack Aircraft to Afghanistan

The US Air Force recently awarded a contract to provide “at least 20 A-29 Super Tucanos” to Afghanistan.  The light attack aircraft was competing with the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6, a modified version of the T-6 currently used by both the USAF and US Navy.  The Air Force has also been flying an AT-6 in Arizona in a “non-acquisition program.”

The deal was contracted with Sierra Nevada Corp, though the Super Tucano itself is a product of Brazil-based Read more

New Light Attack Aircraft Won’t See Afghanistan

It appears that the non-acquisition of the armed T-6 may have been planned to take another step, with a potential combat deployment to Afghanistan.  Apparently, the Congressional Armed Services Committees rejected the funding requests for the project:

For more than a year, the Pentagon has wanted to test propeller-driven planes outfitted with reconnaissance sensors and precision-guided weapons in combat to see Read more

AT-6C Drops Laser Guided Bombs in Arizona

The AT-6C, a modified version of the T-6 currently used to train US Air Force and Navy pilots, has reportedly been used to deliver LGBs out of Tucson, Arizona.  The Air Force Reserve Command Test Center has been testing the AT-6C, which is explicitly not an in-development weapons acquisition program.

Though light attack is not an Air Force procurement program, AATC’s task is to report its findings to senior leaders early next year to help refine requirements…

As if to prove the point, the aircraft has a civilian N-number, rather than a military designation:

There aren’t too many civilian aircraft in the world equipped to Read more

AT-6 Tested at Davis Monthan AFB

A highly modified version of the T-6 training aircraft has been flown at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in a flight test project run by the Air National Guard and Reserve:

In appearance, Hawker Beechcraft AT-6Cs resemble the fighters of yesteryear with single engine propellers and shark-face nose art. They are, in actuality, one possible candidate for Air Force light attack aircraft and the latest project for Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center officials based at Tucson International Airport.

The T-6s pictured have wing-mounted tanks and what appears Read more

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