Air Force T-6s Return to Flight; OBOGS Monitoring Cited

Air Force T-6s Return to Flight; OBOGS Monitoring Cited
Air Force T-6s Return to Flight; OBOGS Monitoring Cited

CORRECTED: Removed Reference To AT-6, Which Is Not Derived From T-6  WASHINGTON: The basic training plane for Air Force pilots, the propeller-driven T-6 Texan, is returning to flight almost one month after being grounded after a series of unexplained physiological events (what we used to call suspected hypoxia incidents). As is the case with most such…

Beechcraft Exits Bankruptcy On Eve Of Air Force’s Light Air Support Pick

[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…

Hawker Beechcraft Chairman Rebuffs Security Concerns Over Sale To Chinese: EXCLUSIVE

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,…

Tucano Debuts At Airshow Amidst Lawsuit, Chinese Takeover Talk

[UPDATED with comment from outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz] Sierra Nevada Corp. unveiled its Super Tucano to the American public even as its lawsuit proceeds against the American government. The Air Force initially decided to buy 20 of the light attack planes for Afghanistan, then unexpectedly cancelled the Light Air Support…

Hawker Beechcraft Delivers 8,000 LAS Proposal For AT-6 – By Hand

Hawker Beechcraft delivers LAS proposal to USAF – all 8,800 pages of it – by hand to avoid more bureaucratic FUBAR. See http://aol.it/M7IJfr SydneyFreedberg

SNC Files Suit Over Super Tucano Cancellation, Decries ‘Broken’ Acquisition System

“The acquisitions system is so fundamentally broken,” Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) executive Taco Gibert told Breaking Defense this morning. “Everybody loses.” Yesterday, SNC filed suit in federal court, seeking to undo the Air Force’s cancellation of the Light Air Support contract, originally awarded to SNC’s A-29 Super Tucano. That’s just the latest descent into dysfunction…

Super Tucano Supporters In Shock: AF To Pick Tucano Or AT-6 Without Flying Either

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, and it will even disregard what it has data from the limited “flight demonstration” it conducted last year. That’s a disturbing departure from best practice in…

Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 Back In Running Vs. Super Tucano: New LAS RFP Inbound

WASHINGTON [updated Friday 3:30 pm to add details from the Air Force statement and comment from Hawker Beechcraft CEO]: The Texan II is back in the saddle again. Next week, on Tuesday the 17th, the US Air Force will meet with both Hawker Beechcraft, which makes the AT-6 Texan II attack plane, and rival Sierra…

Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 Guns For Embraer’s Super Tucano: Rival Planes Compared

It’s Texan versus Tucano, take two, and the embarrassed Air Force has got to get it right this time. With all the claims, counter-claims, and rumors swirling about the controversial contract to buy the Embraer Super Tucano, which the Air Force cancelled unexpectedly on Tuesday and will likely re-compete, Breaking Defense went both to the…

Air Force to Axe Super Tucano, Investigate Choice Of Brazilian Plane For Afghanistan

BREAKING [updated 4:15 pm with new contractor responses]: The Air Force will terminate its contract to buy a new Light Air Support plane for the fledgling Afghan air force, and it will launch an investigation into the original decision to select the Brazilian-designed Super Tucano aircraft being provided by Sierra Nevada Corporation. Rival contractor Hawker…

Nasty Battle Deepens Over Air Force Super Tucano Deal; Foreigners, Buy American, George Soros All In Play

If you thought the Republican primaries had turned ugly, wait till you see what it takes to win an Air Force contract nowadays. The feud between Hawker Beechcraft and Sierra Nevada Corporation over the Light Air Support contract has escalated from the usual appeals to the GAO up to a lawsuit, a freeze on the…

Air Force Buys Light Attack Planes For Afghans — Not U.S.

Air Force Buys Light Attack Planes For Afghans — Not U.S.
Air Force Buys Light Attack Planes For Afghans — Not U.S.

Just before the New Year, the U.S. Air Force finally selected a new Light Air Support plane for ground attack in counterinsurgency, picking the Brazilian Super Tucano over the American AT-6– whose manufacturer, Wichita, Kan.-based Hawker Beechcraft, is filing suit over the decision [update: leading the Air Force to issue a stop-work order on the…