Raytheon Takes Trainer To Farnborough
Raytheon figures it
this way: If it's good enough for the US Air Force and Navy, it's
good enough to market overseas. That's why the company is taking
it's T-6B Texan II to the Farnborough Air Show in July.
But it's not just any Texan II making the trip. This is an
updated version, according to the Wichita Business Journal. It has
an all-glass cockpit and can even carry weapons. That, Raytheon
hopes, will attract customers like the foreign version of the T-6A
never did.
"As of today, we don't have any firm orders for this airplane
that we are creating," said Sherry Grady, Raytheon's vice president
in charge of government business. "But that's not unusual, that's
part of our commercial environment. Kind of, 'if you build it, they
will come.'" Grady told the Wichita paper she hopes to eventually
sell 500 T-6Bs to foreign governments.
Right now, Raytheon is building 782 T-6As for the US Air Force
and Navy. It's a $7 billion contract that runs through at least
2012. Raytheon's international marketing plan for the T-6B centers
on cost-effectiveness. "For example, if their tactical fighter is a
Eurofighter versus a Joint Strike Fighter versus an F-16, they're
going to want a primary trainer that's going to allow them
familiarity without going into it (larger aircraft)," Grady told
the Business Journal. The obvious cost benefit comes in the
difference between the money it takes to operate the T-6B and the
money it takes to fly those front-line tactical aircraft.
It's a plan that analysts say just might work. After all,
militaries around the world are looking to save money. If they
don't have to order up a two-place version of aircraft like the
JSF, then that's money in their pockets.
But Raytheon has made
that pitch before, with the T-6A. Back when the Texan II was first
introduced in 1995, the company hoped it would sell 1500 of them
overseas. But those orders were never placed.
Raytheon also faces a tough competitor in the form of the
Embraer Super Tucano/ALX, which is not only a trainer in many Latin
American countries, but also serves as a light attack aircraft.
But here's where America's huge counter-drug smuggling
operations could have a fringe benefit. The US Government pours
millions of dollars into Latin America to fight drug trafficking.
Spending some of that money on an American-built aircraft as
opposed to the Embraer model could be seen as both financially
prudent and politically correct. That is, as long as the T-6A or
T-6B is unopposed in the air, said Grady.
The T-6B could very well be a light attack airplane. That is
also a market that we do look at," she told the Business Journal.
"Primarily that's in South American countries, places that want to
use it, if you will, for insurgents. I wouldn't want to be flying a
T-6 with another airplane shooting back. It's a great little
airplane, but it's not that fast."