First T-6C Trainer Aircraft for Vietnam to Arrive End of 2023

22 Desember 2022

Pilots of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Vietnam People's Army during training on the Beechcraft T-6A Texan II training aircraft in the USA at Columbus Air Force Base (Mississippi), 2019 (photo : US Embassy in Vietnam)

At a press conference in Hanoi (Vietnam) on December 9, 2022 of the American delegation at the Vietnam International Defense Exhibition 2022 (VIDEX-2022), the representative of the US Air Force Command in the Pacific, Brigadier General Sarah Russ, said that the United States will supply Vietnam from 2024 to 2027 12 Beechcraft T-6 Texan II turboprop trainers.

The planes, most likely, will be delivered to Vietnam at the expense of American military assistance. General Sara Russ said the first three aircraft will be delivered to the Vietnamese side in the first quarter of 2024, two or three more at the end of 2024, and the remaining six or seven "before or in 2027."

In turn, on December 10 at the VIDEX-2022 exhibition, Tom Webster, vice president of defense sales of the Textron Aviation Defense division of Textron Corporation, which owns the production of Beechcraft T-6 Texan II aircraft, announced that the first of the planned T-6C Texan II aircraft will be delivered to the Vietnamese side at the end of 2023.

Training on the Beechcraft T-6A Texan II training aircraft in the USA at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi (photo : USAF)

“In 2021, Vietnam ordered the T-6C Texan II to replace their old Yakovlev Yak-52 trainers. However, Texan II, as a more advanced aircraft, can provide training for pilots from the initial stage to advanced operational training,” said Tom Webster, “The company is open to additional orders for both the T-6C and AT-6 if the need arises. ".

In 2018-2019, two Air Force and Air Defense pilots of the Vietnam People's Army were trained in the United States on a 52-week course on T-6A Texan II aircraft as part of the so-called US Air Force Aviation Leadership Program (ALP), the training was funded by the US side.

Recall that at the beginning of 2021, the US Air Force issued a formal request to industry regarding the planned supply to Vietnam at the expense of American funding of three Beechcraft T-6С Texan II training aircraft, and at the beginning of June 2021, the US Air Force confirmed the conclusion of the corresponding contract. In August 2021, it was announced that the program for the supply of T-6C aircraft to Vietnam would be expanded to six units, and now, as we can see, the intention to supply 12 aircraft has already been announced.

(BMPD)