[rockinqsranch]

From the article: “The Air Force’s move surprised aircraft industry analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group.

“They seemed to be the front runner for the contract,” he said of Hawker. “They had the most infrastructure spread over the most states and the most political support.”

So then the analyst must have been in the bag for Hawker according to what you say must be the answer, therefore the responses I’ve been receiving all tell me the article is BS written by a local journalist with a trembling lower lip.

[Dem Guard]

What do you mean the gold in Fort Knox is all gone? ;-)

[NonValueAdded]

“They seemed to be the front runner for the contract,” he said of Hawker. “They had the most infrastructure spread over the most states and the most political support.”

That statement smacks of pure politics. Nothing about aircraft capabilities, just how many Congresscritters would be in their corner.

[SeaHawkFan]

From the article: “The Air Force’s move surprised aircraft industry analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. “They seemed to be the front runner for the contract,” he said of Hawker. “They had the most infrastructure spread over the most states and the most political support.”

This guy's perception is based on political support and not the performance of the proven Super Tucano v. an under development, reworked old platform.

[USNBandit]

The author is definitely in the bag for Beech, but I think Beech was in a good position having the existing domestic line open. The issues for Beech were that they were modifying a trainer. I think they were already working on the AT-6, but this timeline probably put some pressure on them. They were working through some issues with hard points and put a different version of the PT-6 engine than the T-6

Embraer teamed up with Sierra Nevada Corporation to bring Super T construction to the U.S. One thing to note is that SNC has a company president that would be considered a minority female. Their company structure has been a process of moving out of cable tv parts manufacture and into defense through the acquisition of small contractors. They are involved in the modification of civil aircraft for ISR and security operations, components for approach systems on aircraft carriers and auto landing systems for UAVs. They will be building these from kits. Eurocopter started their LUH-72 Lakota line the same way, assembling kits manufactured in Europe.