Aircraft
Light Air Support Contract Dust-up Begins to Settle

Even as Hawker Beechcraft announced in March that Brazil has become the Wichita OEM’s leading market for its civil aircraft line, the company was continuing to do battle with rival Sierra Nevada and its Brazilian partner Embraer over a light air support (LAS) contract potentially valued at close to $1 billion. Now, a new chapter in the competition has opened.

The confrontation erupted last December when the Air Force awarded the LAS contract, initially valued at $335 million, to Sierra Nevada and Embraer. In doing so, it picked Embraer’s Super Tucano single-engine turboprop over the AT-6 from Hawker Beechcraft.