Textron Aviation announced that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Contracting Command to purchase several aircraft, including three Beechcraft King Air 360 ER (Extended Range) aircraft for naval aviation in Ecuador and Peru.
The award is part of a $100 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for the purchase of Cessna SkyCourier, Cessna Grand Caravan EX, Beechcraft King Air 360 and Beechcraft King Air 260 special mission aircrafts in support of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program over a 5-year period.
“This IDIQ aligns with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent tasking memo directing improvement and acceleration of DOD’s institutional processes to execute FMS cases. It will provide highly capable commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) aircraft that can be equipped with COTS releasable technology, and it will accelerate acquisition and contracting timelines from many months or years to weeks,” said Bob Gibbs, vice president, Special Mission Sales for Textron Aviation. “We are honored the U.S. Army created this multiyear IDIQ contract with Textron Aviation, which provides the ability to rapidly procure COTS aircraft and modification for FMS allies and partner nations.”
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The initial award is for three King Air 360 Extended Range (KA360ER) aircraft, two of which are destined for the Peruvian Naval Aviation Force and one for the Ecuadorian Naval Aviation. These Beechcraft King Air aircraft were acquired to perform maritime patrol missions to enforce the sovereignty of Peru and Ecuador over their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).
The new aircraft will allow the phasing out of the old Beechcraft Super King Air 200 (B200) that both navies (like many others in Latin America) operate in maritime patrol, fishing control, search and rescue and anti-smuggling/drug operations, as they are effective assets for these missions, while being easy and inexpensive to operate.
