“A specific step was to start negotiations with the aim of achieving the lowest possible price and at the same time the shortest possible delivery date,” said Jana Cernochova, Czech Republic’s minister of defense.
By Tim MartinAustrian Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner reportedly said a contract for the new jets should be inked by the first half of 2024.
By Michael MarrowSeveral nations are buying or installing new radars or sending new planes in the air in hopes of better tracking drug transshipments.
By Wilder Alejandro Sanchez“They were very interested in our plane in the past, but to be honest with you, we are not in touch with them anymore,” Bosco da Costa Junior told Breaking Defense during the Paris Airshow. “I don’t have any kind of open conversation with them.”
By Aaron MehtaThe companies hope their intercontinental partnership will expand sales of their own jets and increase collaboration on existing orders.
By Michael Marrow“This will easily be Buy American Act [compliant]. It’s not even going to be close,” L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik said of the effort with Brazil’s Embraer.
By Aaron MehtaL3Harris believes that the KC-390 could be a key piece of the Air Force’s next-generation KC-Z family of tankers due to its smaller size and ability to operate in austere environments.
By Valerie InsinnaSOCOM has budgeted $106 million in 2021 to buy the first five of up to 75 Armed Overwatch aircraft to perform close air support for its troops on the ground, light attack and ISR missions. The planes would replace Air Force Special Operations Command current fleet of U-28 Draco aircraft.
By Theresa HitchensGen. Arnold Bunch says that Air Tractor’s initial AT-802 offering “did not have ejection seats.”
By Theresa HitchensThe Air Force placed a $2.4 billion placeholder in the 2019 budget to buy Light Attack Aircraft over the next five years, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters this morning.
By Colin ClarkUPDATED: Adds Ayotte Comment WASHINGTON: The Air Force is considering not one, but two replacements for the aging A-10 Warthog close air support plane. But analysts wonder why, given that the service is already building a new bomber (the B-21), a new tanker (the KC-46), a new fighter (the F-35A), they would want to build two Close…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: Wichita Congressman Mike Pompeo and Kansas senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran have written the Pentagon to protest Wichita-based Beechcraft’s loss of the bitterly contested Light Air Support contract, Rep. Pompeo told Breaking Defense this afternoon. Beechcraft, which had offered its AT-6 Texan II aircraft, announced plans earlier today to file a formal protest…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.[Updated 1:15 pm, Feb. 20] Wichita-based Beechcraft — formerly Hawker Beechcraft — has officially emerged from bankruptcy with a new name, 2,000 fewer employees, $2 billion less debt, and one last shot at a bitterly contested Air Force contract to provide ground attack planes to Afghanistan. The Air Force’s decision on the Light Air Support…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The proposed sale of bankrupt Hawker Beechcraft to a Chinese company will create no security problems for the US military, pledged Hawker chairman Bill Boisture in an exclusive interview with Breaking Defense. If the potential $1.8 billion sale to Superior Aviation Beijing actually goes through — and at least one well-regarded industry observer, Richard Aboulafia,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.