Tactical Air Defense Services, Inc.(fka TADF)

[fastjets]

Straight from Wikipedia: The Super Tucano 314 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_314_Super_Tucano

The story of the only Super Tucano in the USA. Someone needs to finish the story here.

One Super Tucano has also been purchased by a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, an American private military contracting firm. The aircraft did not have the machine guns normally attached to the wings.

In 2008, the U.S. Navy began testing the Super Tucano at the behest of the U.S. Special Operations Command for its potential use to support special warfare operations, giving it the official U.S. designation A-29B. The Super Tucano is being offered in a U.S. Air Force competition for 100 counterinsurgency aircraft in 2009.

On 12 April 2010, Brazil signed a defensive pact that opened negotiations for the acquisition of 200 Super Tucanos from Embraer to U.S. forces. After excluding the AT-6 from the LAS Program on 16 November 2011, the U.S. Air Force has apparently chosen the Embraer Super Tucano to meet the Light Air Support (LAS) requirement.

According to GAO: “the Air Force concluded that HBDC had not adequately corrected deficiencies in its proposal. In this regard, the agency concluded that multiple deficiencies and significant weaknesses found in HBDC’s proposal make it technically unacceptable and results in unacceptable mission capability risk”. Hawker Beechcraft's protest against its exclusion was dismissed.

But the contract award was disputed and a stop-work was issued the following January. All motions will be due to U.S. Court of Federal Claim by 6 March 2012.

For this procurement the avionics are to be supplied by Elbit Systems of America. Sierra Nevada, the US-based prime contractor will be building the Super Tucano in Jacksonville, FL.

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