Textron Wins $70.2M US Air Force Contract Award

Textron Aviation Defense LLC,  a Textron Inc. company, won a $70.2-million Other Transaction Authority (OTA) with the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center to equip the U.S. Air Force with two Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine aircraft, pilot training, engineering services and up to four years of contractor support for maintenance and spares. The work in support of this OTA, which includes activities in support of military type certification, will take place in Wichita, Kansas.

“Textron Aviation Defense is proud to equip the U.S. AirForce with the multi-role Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine,” said Brett Pierson, vicepresident of Defense Strategy and Sales. “The AT-6 is a vital element of theNational Defense Strategy to build ally and partner capacity, capability andinteroperability — and does so at a fraction of the cost of other combataircraft. We’re eager to deliver the aircraft to the Air Force in support ofAir Combat Command’s (ACC) development of operational tactics and standards forexportable, tactical networks that improve interoperability with internationalpartners.”

This acquisition enables the U.S. Air Force to leverage acommercial off-the-shelf, non-developmental integrated weapons system to equipa multi-national coalition with a common system that meets a wide array oftraining and operational requirements.

“Our focus is on how a light attack aircraft can help ourallies and partners as they confront violent extremism and conduct operationswithin their borders,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein ina U.S. Air Force press release published upon the issuance of the request forproposal. “Continuing this experiment, using the authorities Congress hasprovided, gives us the opportunity to put a small number of aircraft throughthe paces and work with partner nations on ways in which smaller, affordableaircraft like these can support their air forces.”

ACC will experiment with the AT-6 to further examine theways in which a common architecture and intelligence-sharing network willconnect platforms, sensors and weapons and deliver a digital network for lightattack aircraft.

“It’s rewarding to equip U.S. and partner nations with anaffordable, easy to maintain and highly effective tactical aircraft in this eraof constrained military budgets,” Pierson added. “The U.S. Air Force and Navyflew the AT-6 during the Light Attack experiment, putting its combat-provenA-10 mission computer, Wescam MX-15 EO/IR sensor, Airborne Extensible RelayOver-Horizon Network (AERONet) and other capabilities to work, employing asubstantial amount of ordnance, demonstrating aircrew re-fueling and re-armingat the Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP) and conducting otheractivities in support of experiment objectives. The AT-6 met all of theexperiment’s standards and proved itself as a high performance, austerefield-capable aircraft that delivers unparalleled mission capability,deployability and sustainability.”

The Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine multi-role turboprop delivers mission configurability, an advanced ISR technology and deployability and sustainability. The AT-6 equips operators worldwide with value, ease of training, logistics efficiencies and 85 percent parts commonality with the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II. The AT-6 Wolverine will enter into service at Nellis AFB, Nevada, for follow-on light attack experiments by U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and partner countries and is available to its sister business unit, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), for contracted air services under the U.S. Navy’s Terminal Attack Controller Trainer (TACT) program for live-air training of forward air controllers (FACs), joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) and forward air controllers (airborne) at NAS Fallon, Nevada. The AT-6 Wolverine features 35 weapons configurations that fulfill SOCOM Armed Overwatch requirements for Close Air Support (CAS), Armed Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR), Strike Coordination & Reconnaissance (SCAR), and Forward Air Control (Airborne) (FAC(A)).