Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano continues to accumulate orders in Africa, capturing a large share of the light attack and manned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) market.
The Brazilian aircraft maker announced that it has signed a contract for the sale of four A-29 Super Tucano light attack and advanced trainer aircraft to an undisclosed customer in Africa.
Embraer made the announcement today, stating that an “undisclosed customer will become the sixth operator of the A-29 Super Tucano in the African continent.”
These aircraft will perform a wide spectrum of missions such as border surveillance, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), close air support, counterinsurgency, and advanced flight training.
“The A-29 Super Tucano is an extremely versatile aircraft that is able to carry out the most challenging missions under the most demanding conditions. It is the world leader in its category as it combines a combat-proven track record with advanced technology,” said Bosco da Costa Junior, President and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security.
One likely country would be Ghana, which has long been seeking an order for the Super Tucano. Ghana earlier in June 2015 announced an order for five Super Tucanos, but the contract never went through. The total value of the contract was $88million with a loan from BNDES, which also includes logistics support and training for pilots and mechanics in Ghana.
Mark Owen Woyongo, at the time Minister of Defense, first said in March 2014 that the acquisition of 6 Super Tucanos was under consideration, for use at a flying school to be built in Tamale, Ghana’s 3rd city. President John Dramani Mahama then confirmed in November 2014 that the country would buy an unspecified quantity of Super Tucanos, along with Chinese Z-9 helicopters, more M-17 Russian helos, and an additional C-295 tactical transport.
Subsequently, confirmation came on 18 February from President John Dramani Mahama, indicating that five Super Tucanos will be purchased, along with the Z-9s and other equipment.
In February, the Ghana Air Force hosted an event to promote the A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to the defence minister and other senior officials and officers on 19 February. Embraer demonstrated the A-29 at the Accra Air Base, but there have been no known developments since then.
In his speech, Air Vice-Marshal Frederick Asare Kwasi Bekoe said the demonstration would “provide a platform for collaboration and negotiations between Sierra Nevada Corp and Embraer Defense & Security for future acquisition”.
He added that the Ghana Air Force considers the Super Tucano to be an “appropriate platform to enhance our deterrent and offensive posture within the sub-region”. Noting that the Super Tucano is rugged, versatile, and relatively cheap to operate, he said it could be used for countering terrorists, insurgents, and pirates, as well as for border security.
Minister of Defence Dominic Nitiwul responded that “it is plain from the speech of the chief of the air staff that our air force has fallen in love with this aircraft, and I am sure that negotiations to buy this aircraft will start in earnest”.
As a multi-mission aircraft, the A-29 Super Tucano provides great versatility for armed reconnaissance, close air support, light attack, and advanced training missions on a single platform, which exponentially increases the aircraft’s availability and operational flexibility. Its robust airframe is capable of operating from unpaved runways in harsh environments.
Armament comprises one 12.7 mm machinegun in each wing. Five hardpoints can carry a maximum external load of 1 550 kilograms. Weapons options include gun pods, bombs, rocket pods, and (on the two outboard stations) air-to-air missiles.
As the Super Tucano was designed from the start to have a light attack capability, it features built-in machine gun mounts, self-sealing fuel tanks and armour in critical locations. Its combat abilities have been well proven in Afghanistan and Colombia, during Amazon protection operations in Brazil and counter-narcotics operations in the Dominican Republic and Brazil, amongst others.
According to Embraer, the Super Tucano has over 290 orders and more than 570,000 flight hours, with 60,000 of those in combat.
For air forces seeking a proven, comprehensive, efficient, reliable, and cost-effective solution on a single platform, coupled with great operational flexibility, the A-29 Super Tucano offers a wide range of missions such as close air support, air patrol, special operations, air interdiction, JTAC, forward air controller (FAC), air and tactical coordinator (TAC), armed ISR, border surveillance, reconnaissance, air escort, basic, operational and advanced training, transition to air superiority fighters, JTAC/LIFT and FAC training.
In Africa, the aircraft has been exported to Angola (6), Burkina Faso (3), Mali (4), Mauritania (4), and Nigeria (12).
