Feds Override Beechcraft Appeal Of LAS Contract

After much ado from Beechcraft, looks like the new light air support aircraft are finally going into production. Whether it be Beech or Embraer, I don't care so much as getting these aircraft produced in a timely manner to affect troops on the ground.

Also,I didn't realize the aircraft were going to the Afghan Air Force...I thought they were going to the US Air Force.

I think that the terms

• Light Air Support (LAS), versus
• Light Attack and Armed Recon (LAAR)

get mixed up a lot in this connection. Congress gave the LAS contract to Embraer for a batch of Tucanos, hotly contested by Beechcraft; while the LAAR program was never funded to begin with. The aircraft are similar platforms, but with different guns and other stuff.

wiki- LAAR vs LAS
wiki- LAARs
LAARs Gov't contract listing

I'm glad the e-ring is manning the what up and putting these losers in their place.

The AT-6A is a good platform but the Tucano is too. I was hoping for the sake of Wichita's economy it would be selected. Be that as it may, Beechcraft still makes a ton of King Airs for military buyers. You can drive by the Wichita plant at any time and see a half dozen of them getting ready to go out.

The war is over according to the white house and the Afghans will never fly them after we leave. If they wanted more CAS they should have thought about that when they were BRACing all the A-10 bases. If one dime of US taxpayer money is going to these planes for us or the Afghans it is wasted money. We can not afford aircraft solely suited for permissive phase IV operations going forward. These airplanes and most of the UAVs of today are a generational fad.

Nothing against the airplane or beech, but the pentagon can't let every major contract go through fifteen years of appeals and stop-work orders. They need to do a good enough job in their initial decision making and then stick with the results.

Exception for outright fraud and corruption ala Darleen Dryun.

You lost. Twice. Get over it already!

Exactly....I thought time was of the essence getting those in the hands of the war fighters. Now here we are, pulling back our forces...

As much fun as I thought an AT-6 would be to fly, I've had about as much "fun" as I can stand with their procurement/delivery/troubleshooting process. Tucano will be great.

Air Tractor would've looked much cooler, though. Never thought I'd see an airplane that could make a Skyraider look like it needed to hit the gym.