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A pre-bid conference held last month witnessed three vendors attending: Embraer proffering the EMB 314 Super Tucano, Beechcraft with its AT-6B Texan II Wolverine and Aero Vodochody pushing its L-39NG. Aero Vodochody was planning to offer six new L-39NG aircraft and two refurbished L-39 Albatross trainers upgraded to the same standard. However, the Czech company submitted no bid, therefore leaving Embraer and Beechcraft to slug it out. However, the Philippines declared that Beechcraft’s eligibility and technical component of the bid did not met requirements, and so it was disqualified. This left Embraer as the single lowest calculated compliant bidder. The Super Tucano has long been regarded as the favourite to win this competition, and some believe the specifications were based around those of the Brazilian aircraft. An EMB 314 was even despatched to the Philippines early in 2016 to allow PAF pilots to fly it. Philip Windsor, Embraer’s business development manager in Asia-Pacific, said his company’s offering is a ‘fully compliant solution’, More than 250 examples have been purchased by 13 different air forces, including 16 by neighbouring Indonesia. The AT-6 Wolverine is not currently operated by any air force, which presented a challenge for Beechcraft to ensure it complied with Philippine procurement regulations that require the winning platform to be in use by either the manufacturing nation’s military, or at least two other foreign militaries. However, Tom Webster, Beechcraft Defense’s vice president of business development Asia Pacific, deemed this not to be an obstacle. He told Shephard at ADAS 2016 that the T-6 trainer, on which the AT-6 is based, is already in widespread service. Source: https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/de...