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."

FMI: www.raytheon.com