“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.”
“And so what's really important to me is what the vendor brings to the table, in terms of their ability to integrate weapons onto a non-developmental platform," said SOCOM acquisition czar Jim Smith.
As threats evolve, the winning model ties digital engineering to manufacturing capacity and a reindustrialized supply chain.
Gen. Arnold Bunch says that Air Tractor's initial AT-802 offering "did not have ejection seats."
Contracts are expected by the end of the year for the A-29 and in early 2020 for the AT-6. The Air Force plans to buy "two or three of both," an Air Force spokeswoman said.