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Hawker Beechcraft Corp. received a $123.8 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide 20 T-6A trainer aircraft, training devices, and technical publications to the Air Force. At this time, $69.3 million has been obligated. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base manages the contract (FA8617-09-C-6166).
The T-6 is the result of iterative modifications to the popular Pilatus PC-9 trainer that left the 2 aircraft with no common parts. Now the T-6 serves as the USAF’s and US Navy’s JPATS intermediate to advanced training aircraft for prospective pilots. It is also used by Canada’s international “NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC),” and by Greece. The T-6A was not initially designed for an armed role, unlike international competitors like Embraer’s Super Tucano – and the USA has no plans to use them in that capacity. Iraq has different ideas, however, and wants 36 AT-6B armed counter-insurgency variants to complement a proposed buy of 20 T-6A trainers.