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Beechcraft hopes Congress will get involved to kill a U.S. Air Force contract with its Brazilian rival Embraer to make $431 million worth of fighter planes for Afghanistan.

Embraer Officially Opens A-29 Assembly Facility in Florida Florida Gov. Rick Scott and other political leaders joined Embraer president and CEO Frederico Curado on March 26 to cut the ribbon on a 40,000-sq-ft hangar at Jacksonville International Airport that Embraer will use to assemble the A-29 Super Tucano for the U.S. Air Force Light Air Support (LAS) program. The Air Force awarded Embraer and its teammate Sierra Nevada, the U.S. proponent for the LAS bid, a $427 million contract on February 27 to supply 20 Super Tucanos for light air support, reconnaissance support and training of the Afghan military. The...

An Open Letter to General Schwartz on the Light Air Support Aircraft by Ed Timperlake Please do not validate that the AT-6 was compliant when submitted for LAS Solicitation FA8615-10-R-6088” by allowing your investigators to focus exclusively on the end-game selection paperwork. “There will be hell to pay” USAF Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz was recently quoted about possible results depending on what the “investigation” of the “smoking hole” debacle of trying to deliver a combat aircraft to the Afghan war effort. This is more tough talk from a General who previously told industry: “Don’t blow smoke up my...

Hawker Beechcraft's AT-6 Guns For Embraer's Super Tucano: Rival Planes Compared It's Texan versus Tucano, take two, and the embarrassed Air Force has got to get it right this time. With all the claims, counter-claims, and rumors swirling about the controversial contract to buy the Embraer Super Tucano, which the Air Force cancelled unexpectedly on Tuesday and will likely re-compete, AOL Defense went both to the rival companies and independent sources to distill this definitive guide to the competition, from the two planes' performance to the manufacturers' twenty-year history of feuding. The bottom line? Both leading competitors are offering small,...

A-29 Super Tucano Wins Air Force Bid for Light Air Support Mission SPARKS, Nev., Dec. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION and EMBRAER DEFENSE & SECURITY to supply aircraft, training and support to the Light Air Support program. A-29 Super Tucano to be built in Jacksonville, FL; over 70 U.S. companies to supply parts and services Eren Ozmen, President, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), and Luiz Carlos Aguiar, CEO, Embraer Defense and Security (Embraer), today announced that the U.S. Air Force has selected SNC, partnered with Embraer, to supply Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft to be used as...