Ran across this in the media, hadn't heard anything about it nor had I read anything about it on Metrojax
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7V64W_rr_e4WI29P4lrCYA-yfqQ?docId=d878267d433a4825a2cf526cb3836d6b
Pertinent info is in last paragraph.
"The exclusion decision leaves the A-29 Super Tucano built by Brazil's Embraer as the lone contender for the initial contract to supply 35 with the potential for 55 aircraft worth up to $950 million, which does not include foreign sales. Embraer has formed a partnership with Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp. and has said it would build the turboprop in Jacksonville, Fla., should it win the contract."
Anyone wanting to get a glimpse of this new support aircraft, check out the clip of the FUERZA AEREA DE COLOMBIA. This is one cool little plane.
http://www.youtube.com/v/G8LwEsg7K0g?version=3&hl=en_US
Civil, what happened to the Italian/American transport plane that was supposed to be built at Cecil? Any word?
OCKLAWAHA
Thanks for the video Ock. The light Transport program at Cecil is dead. That project was strictly an Army request/requirement. They wanted an aircraft half the size of a C-130 able to use shorter cruder runways. Apparently a lot of the C-130s were flying almost empty. The selection of the spartan was a good one, shared the C-130 palatization system and many mechanical system components. During Desert storm flew on a lot of C-130s and I was the only thing on them. Well to make a long story short, the air force invoked the Key West agreement and took over the program. Most defense watchers predicted the air force would zero the budget for the airplane out, they didn't want it but wanted more C-130s. Thats exactly what happened, so we won't be seeing any Spartans being built at Cecil Field. My understanding is that if the A-29 is buildt it will be at a renovated hangar at the internationa airport, small airplane so shouldn't need a special hangar for the tooling.
There's now a local story on this:
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-12-30/story/jacksonville-lands-355-million-contract-build-military-planes
Quote from: stephendare on December 31, 2011, 08:47:45 AM
thanks for helping us scoop the times union on this, Civ!!
Quote from: civil42806 on December 28, 2011, 05:17:24 PM
Ran across this in the media, hadn't heard anything about it nor had I read anything about it on Metrojax
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7V64W_rr_e4WI29P4lrCYA-yfqQ?docId=d878267d433a4825a2cf526cb3836d6b
Pertinent info is in last paragraph.
"The exclusion decision leaves the A-29 Super Tucano built by Brazil's Embraer as the lone contender for the initial contract to supply 35 with the potential for 55 aircraft worth up to $950 million, which does not include foreign sales. Embraer has formed a partnership with Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp. and has said it would build the turboprop in Jacksonville, Fla., should it win the contract."
Your welcome Stephen, don't live in jax anymore, but do keep an eye out on the area
I heard the official announcement and this great news!
Not so good news...
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-01-04/story/air-force-halts-355-million-contract-targeted-jacksonville (http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-01-04/story/air-force-halts-355-million-contract-targeted-jacksonville)
Air Force halts $355 million contract targeted for Jacksonville
Posted: January 4, 2012 - 7:55pm | Updated: January 5, 2012 - 8:35am
David Bauerlein
The Air Force on Wednesday froze a $355 million contract that would generate 50 jobs in Jacksonville for assembly of a military plane â€" a contract cheered by city leaders when it was awarded last month.
The temporary stop-work order by the Air Force comes on the heels of litigation by Hawker Beechcraft Corp., a Kansas company contending it was wrongly excluded from the competition.
The Air Force said it expects to prevail in the suit pending before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The Air Force is confident in the merits of its contract award decision and anticipates that the litigation will be quickly resolved,´ the statement said.
The contract went to Sierra Nevada Corp., which will use Brazil-based Embraer to assemble the planes at Jacksonville International Airport.
Pretty standard with any DOD project these days, don't think there is any contract awarded without a challenge, will have to see how it pans out.
^ Exactly. This is very common.
THE LATEST
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-02-27/story/air-force-awards-contract-jacksonville-build-attack-support-planes
If anyone is still wondering WTF a 'Super Tucano' looks like, here you go, straight from COLOMBIA.
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/0abd17c7-7e7c-4c50-8772-1066983b0200_zpsd018ae52.jpg)
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/4a6737ad-f56d-44b6-a6bb-3ce54a6f620c_zps8741fe48.jpg)
SUPER TUCANO
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/c3e1a49f-6dbf-479d-9290-490c53ef3d1a_zps7839fc40.jpg)
SUPER TUCANO
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/1112e082-2eb1-45d5-8d0d-d17d3f296a66_zps816599d4.jpg)
SUPER TUCANO
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/ScreenShot2013-02-28at50056PM_zps42dd011e.png)
SUPER TUCANO'S OVER COLOMBIA
And from our friends in Israel and France another 24 up graded K-FIR'S for Colombia, along with a dozen Blackhawks, some Russian Mi-17's, a couple of German Submarines, 120 artillery pieces and a crap load of new armored vehicles.
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/ebd3c7db-e227-45a4-b39d-6801dd9be706_zps280f17f1.jpg)
K-FIR over the Andes
(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/TRAVEL%20COLOMBIA%20and%20Latin%20America/76fd6bb9-ebcf-48b2-92a4-cec2055aa884_zpsac8d4009.jpg)
Colombian K-FIR's in 'Red Flag' exercises near Las Vegas
I love how we can't pass a budget but seem to be able to give hundreds of millions of dollars in overpriced aircraft to Afghanistan.
The part that is going to come back to bite us in the ass is the money and weapons we are giving to Egypt and Syria.