BAE Systems to offer T-6C to Australia

BAE Systems announced on Sept. 11 that it has teamed with Beechcraft and CAE to bid for the Australian Defence Force’s fixed-wing pilot training system with the Beechcraft’s T-6C Texan II.
BAE Systems has provided services to Australia’s forces for flight screening and basic flying training since 1992.
The company is also teamed with Beechcraft in the US to support T-6-based pilot training for the US Navy.
The Australian pilot training system competition, known as Project AIR 5428, has been underway since 2005, but a formal request for tender was released in August.
The BAE Systems/Beechcraft/CAE team is the first to break cover in the current incarnation of Air 5428.
Boeing Defence Australia is also interested in the competition.
The Pilatus PC-21 is the main competitor to the T-6C, but the Swiss company is yet to reveal its plans for the pilot training system.
AIR 5428 will replace the separate fixed-wing basic and advanced flying training programs with a single system that will take a candidate from flight screening to wings and will make significant use of simulation and other synthetic training aids.
The tender is due to close in February and the successful system will graduate its first students in early 2017.
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