Air Force overrides Beechcraft LAS protest: The U.S. Air Force has apparently rejected Beechcraft's latest protest of the LAS program award and is sticking with Brazil's Embraer.
"When it comes to producing aircraft that will help Americans come home from Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force today concluded that America's 'best interest' now rests on the shoulders of Brazil," Beechcraft Corp. said. "This decision is very misguided. It will lead to the loss of American jobs and substantially higher costs to American taxpayers."
The LAS program is to provide Afghanistan's air force with an initial 20 light support combat aircraft. The contract was originally given to a partnership between Embraer and the Sierra Nevada Corp. for the A-26 Super Tucano, a turboprop combat aircraft in use by a number of militaries.
The aircraft would be manufactured in Florida and the partner companies highlighted the creation of jobs in the United States as a result of that.
