[sukhoi-30mki]

[Army Air Corps]

Ping

[MindBender26]

Two points:

#1: Obama will so screw up the US military activity in Afghanistan that the Taliban will be back in control long before either A/C could be delivered, or on second thought, they will get there just in time to be turned over to the Taliban.

#2: Buy with no fly? WTF, over?

[JRandomFreeper]

Procurement is broken. NRTS it and start over.

/johnny

[USNBandit]

Let buy the one from the company that has only built two of their models, hasn’t tested them in combat, and is currently bankrupt!

[ZOOKER]

You should know that many years ago, I was employed by Beech Aircraft. It was still a family business back then, a great place to work and learn a trade that kept me fed for 30 years.

You should also know that Hawker Beechcraft filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection three days ago. They were counting on this contract and it didn't come through.

That said, I still wouldn't give either company (Beech or Embrauer) a nickel to build planes for the Taliban Air Force.

[xkaydet65]

Why don’t they just find a plant to redo the P 51 Mustang? Update the cockpit with modern avionics. Place a sensors pod where the drop tank would be, and configure thw plane to carry smart ordnance and put 4 50 cal in the wings.

[Dogbert41]

US taxpayers buying Afghans an air force? WTF? Throw Karzai out of a C-130 from 30,000 feet after giving him a superman cape. That’s an Afghan air force I can live with.

[Yo-Yo]

This whole thing is asinine. The requirement was for an off-the-shelf COIN aircraft, and the only qualifying aircraft was the one the USAF originally selected, the Super Tucano. The AT-6 is an experimental derivative of the T-6 Texan II, so as such is not “off-the-shelf.”

[C19fan]

A plane that one can use off the shelf technology for, really WW II technology except for perhaps avonics, is 15 months behind schedule? What a screw up. How hard would of it had been to refurbish IL-2 Sturmovik’s?