FIDAE: Embraer confirms new African buyers for Super Tucano

Embraer Defense and Security has announced its receipt of orders for the sale of EMB-314/A-29 Super Tucanos to African countries Angola, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. The total value of the deals comes to $180 million, the company says, while declining to specify the exact number of aircraft involved.

Three aircraft have already been delivered to the Burkina Faso air force, which is using them on border patrol missions, Embraer says. Angola has ordered six for the same mission and will receive its first three examples this year. Mauritania will get its first of an undisclosed number of the aircaft in 2013, and will operate its aircraft on counter-insurgency missions.

"The Super Tucano is highly efficient and presents low operating costs. Its capability for surveillance and counter-insurgency missions makes it ideal for service on the continent of Africa," says Embraer Defense and Security president Luiz Carlos Aguiar. With the new orders nine air forces have chosen the Super Tucano, with six currently operating it, Embraer says.

The Brazilian airframer is also confident of winning the second incarnation of a US Air Force competition for a light attack aircraft, which will be repeated after the service said there were problems with the original tender process. Embraer and Sierra Nevada won the initial competition late last year with the Super Tucano, after the air force eliminated a rival AT-6 proposal from Hawker Beechcraft and Lockheed Martin. The contest is to supply an initial 20 armed turboprops to the Afghan air force


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