Originally Posted by Cubdriver

The Tigershark is too big, heavy, fast, and expensive for this role. The Texan, Cessna 526, and Tucano are much smaller, lighter, slower, and much cheaper aircraft. Think of a baby A-10 Warthog, that kind of thing. The T6-A was borne of the same competition as the Cessna, the 1995 JPATS competition. They are all very similar aircraft, except the 526 is slightly faster and more expensive than the other JPATS entries. With some updates it would be ideal in a LAARs role. Pilots used to love the Cessna A-37 DragonFly on which it is based.