Bridging the Gap

While no official contract exists between Hawker Beechcraft and the Air Force with regard to a light support airframe, talks have proposed a possible $950 million for a total of 55 aircraft as an estimate, which equates to slightly more than Si 7 million per aircraft for acquisition.8 By comparison, the current Marine Corps plan for the upcoming F35-B purchase will be $190 million per aircraft, or the equivalent of 1 1 AT-6s - nearly an entire squadrona While the mission sets for these platforms differ significantly, the ability to fund the acquisition for nearly a squadron of light attack and reconnaissance aircraft in place of one Joint Strike Fighter is substantial. Additionally, because the Navy, Air Force, and allied nations have been flying the baseline T- 6 airframe since 2003, a solid foundation has been created.\n Because of the updated avionics suite developed by Lockheed Martin, the aircraft is capable of carrying a variety of smart weapons to include joint direct-attack munitions as well as laserguided bombs, which is on par with other modern attack aircraft.