Tunisian Air Force receives first of 8 T-6C trainers from Textron

MANAMA — The Tunisian Air Force (TAF) took delivery of the first of eight Beechcraft T-6C trainer planes from Textron Aviation, the firm announced here at the Manama Air Power Symposium 2022.

“The aircraft was delivered at Wichita to the TAF and will arrive [in] Tunisia by the end of first quarter of 2023,” Fouad Kasri, director of sales & strategy for Africa and the Middle East at Textron Aviation Defense, told Breaking Defense.

He added that the TAF students are now using the plane in Kansas for training and familiarization, which started Oct. 31.

In 2019, the US State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Tunisia for 12 T-6C Texan trainer aircraft and related equipment and support for an estimated cost of $234 million. In 2021, the North African country decided to buy eight, with a so-far-unrealized option for four others.

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After the delivery of the first aircraft, Kasri said the second is expected later this year and the remaining six in 2023.

The Beechcraft T-6C Texan II Integrated Training Systems will support the operations at No. 13 Squadron at Sfax Air Base in Tunisia, where other equipment is also slated to be installed, including a ground-based training system, an operational flight trainer and a computer-based training lab.

T-6C trainers will replace Tunisia’s outdated L-59T Super Albatross advanced trainers. The Foreign Military Sales contract includes in-country field service and logistics support representatives, program management support, interim contractor support for the first year, training for pilots and maintenance professionals, spare engines, spare parts and aircraft support equipment.

The aircraft delivered to TAS marks the 1,001 trainer delivered by the Wichita-based company.

At Bahrain International Air Show 2022, taking place from Nov. 9-11, Textron Aviation exhibited the light attack version of the aircraft AT-6 Wolverine in the static area, hoping to attract interest from customers in the Gulf region. That particular aircraft stopped at the airshow on its way to Thailand.

Commenting on the delivery to Tunisia, Ryan Bohl, a Stratfor Middle East and North Africa Analyst at Rane, said the new trainers will help Tunis modernize its air force, which currently has some very old F-5 combat aircraft.

“Tunisia doesn’t face border disputes or air space violations challenges from its bigger neighbors, and even Libya’s unstable situation doesn’t threaten Tunisia from the air. As far as what Tunisia might use a better-trained pilot for, it would most likely be about interdiction of smuggling, though there’s a low but existent risk of needing air power to disrupt terror bases that might emerge in neighboring Libya,” he told Breaking Defense.

T-6C is not the only aircraft that Tunisia eyes to expand its air force. The State Department in 2020 approved the sale of four AT-6 Wolverine Light Attack aircraft.

“Tunisia’s air force is quite small in comparison to its neighbors. It’s smaller than the Russian-supplied Algerians and much, much smaller than Egypt, the regional heavyweight. But since Tunisia doesn’t face overt threats from these neighbors, the air force modernization really represents both building up capabilities for duties they’re already undertaking and about deepening defense ties with the United States,” Boyl said.

He added that the US appears willing to provide some backing for Tunisia because “despite its democratic backslide, it has a non-interventionist history, and because the sales so far don’t suggest Tunisia will be able to use these systems to commit human rights violations (at home or abroad).”