Hail the Conquering Wolverine

Textron Aviation Defense—the military facet of the aviation division of the U.S. technology conglomerate Textron—has announced that its Beechcraft AT-6E Wolverine—a weaponized iteration of Beechcraft’s T-6 Texan II based upon Pilatus’s PC-9—has achieved Military Type Certification (MTC) from the United States Air Force. The AT-6 Wolverine is a multi-role aircraft designed to meet a wide variety of warfighting and peacekeeping (high and low-octane appellations for the selfsame enterprise) missions.

The AT-6E Wolverine’s speed, reliability, maneuvering, altitude, and aggressor capabilities have proven superior across a spectrum of competitions and operational exercises. The United States Air Force was the launch customer for the type, awarding a contract in 2020 for two specimens. The Royal Thai Air Force is the Wolverine’s international launch customer, awarding a contract in 2021 for eight AT-6TH models.

Purpose-built for light attack, counter-insurgency, and Countering Violent Extremist Organizations (C-VEO)—read terrorists—operations, the AT-6 Wolverine affords operators relatively low-cost delivery of precision munitions across disparate inflight and ground environments. The Wolverine’s outstanding endurance and sophisticated communications and sensor arrays establish it among the very best, next-generation Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft.

The AT-6—along with Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano—is currently undergoing operational testing under the US Air Force’s Light-Attack/Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) program (also known as Light Air Support (LAS) or the OA-X program) which seeks to identify a suitable replacement for the USAF’s A-10 Thunderbolt II fleet.

The AT-6 is a low-wing monoplane incorporating a conventional tail with a single vertical stabilizer-rudder assembly, and a fixed, fuselage-mounted horizontal stabilizer fitted with a trailing-edge elevator. The aircraft’s undercarriage is of the retractable, tricycle landing gear variety. The AT-6’s airframe comprises primarily composite materials and houses an advanced fly-by-wire control system.

The AT-6 is powered by a 1,600-shaft-horsepower PT6A-68D turboprop engine driving a four-bladed propeller. Subject drivetrain motivates the aircraft and its 4,110-pound maximum payload to a top-speed of Mach 0.67. Operating at cruise power on internal fuel, the Wolverine has a maximum endurance of 4.5 hours. Kitted out with four external tanks, the aircraft’s loiter time increases to 7.5 hours—about five hours longer than the human posterior can comfortably manage.

Capable of operating with a diverse array of weapons, the AT-6 Wolverine gives the warfighter—or peace-fighter—what he needs when he needs it—and at acquisitional and operational price points likely to delight even the most frugal belligerents.

FMI: www.defense.txtav.com