Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Wichita, Kansas, has been awarded a $95,121,401 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for T-6 sustainment. This contract provides sustaining engineering and program management services for the T-6 aircraft. Work will be performed in Wichita, Kansas, and is expected to be completed April 12, 2026. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds no less than the amount of $1,616,765 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity at (FA8106-20-D-0001).
The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (which became Hawker Beechcraft and later Beechcraft Defense Company, and was bought by Textron Aviation in 2014). A trainer aircraft based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the United States Air Force’s Cessna T-37B Tweet and the United States Navy’s T-34C Turbo Mentor. The T-6A is used by the United States Air Force for basic pilot training and Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training, the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps for primary Naval Aviator training and primary and intermediate Naval Flight Officer (NFO) training.
The T-6 is a development of the Pilatus PC-9, modified by Beechcraft to enter the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) competition in the 1990s. A similar arrangement between Pilatus and British Aerospace had also been in place for a Royal Air Force competition in the 1980s, although that competition selected the Short Tucano. The aircraft was designated under the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system and named for the decades-earlier T-6 Texan. The Model 3000/T-6 is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with enclosed tandem seating for two.
It is powered by single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turboprop engine in tractor configuration with an aluminum, 97-inch (8.1 ft; 2.5 m), four-blade, constant-speed, variable pitch, non-reversing, feathering propeller assembly and has retractable tricycle landing gear. The T-6A was introduced to Moody Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base in 2000–2001, and the Air Force awarded the full-rate T-6 production contract in December 2001. Laughlin Air Force Base began flying the T-6 in 2003 where it is now the primary basic trainer, replacing the T-37.