Boeing to arm Embraer's Super Tucano fighter

Reuters ^ | Tue Jul 10, 2012 | Brad Haynes

[sukhoi-30mki]

Boeing to arm Embraer's Super Tucano fighter

(Reuters) - Brazil's Embraer is announcing plans on Tuesday for Boeing Co to supply a new weapons system for its light attack fighter, strengthening its offer in a fiercely contested bid for a U.S. Air Force contract in Afghanistan.

The new weapons system will offer longer-range "smart" bombs guided by laser and GPS, Embraer said. The company will provide details of the new system, first reported in the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, at the Farnborough Airshow later in the day.

With the Boeing weapons system on its Super Tucano fighter, Embraer aims to bolster its bid for a $355 million Air Force contract. The contract is for 20 light air support planes for the Afghan military's counterinsurgency missions.

Embraer and privately held partner Sierra Nevada won the contract in a prior round of bidding that the Air Force scrapped earlier this year after a lawsuit by rival Hawker Beechcraft.

An Embraer spokesman said the company's latest bid last month [ID:nL1E8G8FSO] included the Boeing weapons system.

Boeing's new role as subcontractor on the Super Tucano reinforces growing ties between the U.S. and Brazilian

[G Larry]

Doesn’t matter...

Pilots and Ground Crew will always refer to it as....:

Super Taco

[SIDENET]

Take a good look at what will doubtless be an instrument of 0bama’s Rural Pacification program.

I always kinda pictured an armed drone coming for me.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“‘Fraid so. Used one, slightly cleaner though, just like that in France.”

I lived in the middle east in the 70’s. That bathroom is a palace compared to what I had to squat over. I think the difference is the TP back then was equivalent to a wood rasp.

[spetznaz]

Lol.

[hosepipe]

The A-10 is the last word in this weapon system...

[A.A. Cunningham]

Not sure why one needs to worry about bird strikes on the canopy with a single engine nose-mounted prop. By the time the bird gets to the canopy, the prop has already turned it into Chicken McNuggets.

What if the bird comes from either side or an oblique angle? The fact is, bird strikes at altitude are a definite and sometimes deadly possibility.

BIRD STRIKE CAUSED FATAL MARINE CRASH

[A.A. Cunningham]

Are you “won” of the media?

[tanknetter]

How I wish that they'd just dust off the plans for the Piper PA-48 Enforcer.





*sigh*

[A.A. Cunningham]

Plane damaged after colliding with bird in midair