AT-6B Flies

By Marcus Weisgerber / July 28, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Hawker Beechcraft's first AT-6B light-attack plane made its inaugural flight yesterday at the company's Wichita, KS, production facility.

The aircraft -- dubbed AT-1 -- flew “uneventfully” for just under 50 minutes, meeting all of its test objectives, according to a company official.

Hawker Beechcraft plans to demonstrate an AT-6B equipped with a number of high-tech communications equipment, datalinks and sensors to the Air National Guard initially in the fall and then again more robustly next year.

Air Force officials plan to use the findings from the congressionally directed AT-6B demonstration when conducting a potential OA-X light-attack plan acquisition program or programs. In recent months, Air Force officials have talked about using a propeller-driven irregular warfare plane as a tool for building partnerships with countries that cannot afford them, and have no need for high-end fighter jets.

At the same time, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) has submitted an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill that would require the defense secretary to coordinate development of an irregular warfare aircraft across all the military services, including the National Guard and Reserve. This includes “the requirements, concept development, demonstration and platform development.”

Brownback also wants the AT-6B demonstration to inform potential IW aircraft purchases down the road, according to the amendment.

Lawmakers have included funding in the Pentagon's FY-08 and FY-09 budgets for the AT-6B tests.

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