Beechcraft is “very close” to a deal to sell its AT-6 light attack aircraft as part of a foreign military sale (FMS) through the Air Force, a key executive told Defense Daily
Thursday.
Though Russ Bartlett, president of Beechcraft’s defense company, declined to provide details of the proposed deal, he said the company is also in discussions with other nations to provide its AT-6. Beechcraft on Aug. 19 celebrated the completion of the inaugural flight of its first production AT-6, a multi-role, multi-mission aircraft system.
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| Beechcraft’s AT-6 light attack aircraft. Photo: Beechcraft. |
Bartlett said the company was satisfied with the AT-6’s inaugural flight and won’t perform any re-engineering work.
The inaugural flight, Bartlett said, was a major milestone for Beechcraft, which earlier this year came up short to rival Sierra Nevada Defense Corp. (SNC) for a $355 million Air Force contract known as Light Air Support (LAS) to supply light attack aircraft to Afghanistan’s nascent air force. Bartlett said once the company finalizes and announces its award, it will be able to start training pilots and maintenance people.
Bartlett said the company hasn’t soured on doing business with the Defense Department after the multi-year Light Air Support saga, which included multiple court challenges and an original award to SNC thrown out because of documentation issues and the appearance of bias toward SNC.
“We are still actually working very well with the U.S. government,” Bartlett said. “We consider Afghanistan (LAS) to be basically water under the bridge…and I’m happy to say the Air Force (does) too and they’re working well with us.”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its June protest ruling against Beechcraft that the Air Force preferred the lower risk of Embraer’s [ERJ] A-29 Super Tucano, offered on behalf of SNC, over the lower price of Beechcraft’s AT-6. Bartlett said the company didn’t do anything to mitigate the risk of the AT-6 because having it in production is an incredible risk reducer and is why Beechcraft continued on with building the airplane despite the LAS decision.
“I think that would give the government, or any potential buyer, great confidence in that we’ve demonstrated that the airplane is producible right down the line with no major hiccups,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett also said Beechcraft is in the midst of its Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) contract, having completed its Air Force T-6A deliveries in April 2010 and delivered about two-thirds of the contracted amount of T-6Bs to the Navy. Bartlett said Beechcraft has three additional years of T-6B production and will finish up in late 2016. The Air Force in May awarded Beechcraft a $210 million contract to produce 35 T-6s with an option for two additional aircraft. The contract specifies 33 T-6s for the Navy and two for the Army (Defense Daily, May 15).
Bartlett said Beechcraft also had another significant aircraft milestone recently when it sold its first Baron G58 aircraft with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Beechcraft said in a June statement it recently delivered the first Baron G58 aircraft with an ISR package to an agency within Puerto Rico’s police department that uses the aircraft for law enforcement surveillance missions within the region. The Baron G58 is a twin, piston-engined aircraft.