Air Force picks Borsight to provide upgrades for T-6A training aircraft avionics and flight simulators
Summary points:
- Borsight will upgrade cockpit avionics on 442 T-6A Texan II aircraft and simulators to enhance training and reduce sustainment costs.
- Upgrade involves adaptive mission computers, FAA-compliant satellite navigation, and new cockpit displays.
- Enhancements include simulated weapons and EW capabilities to boost training effectiveness for new Air Force and Navy pilots.
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – U.S. Air Force avionics experts needed to upgrade the cockpit electronics for the Textron Aviation T-6A Texan II single-engine, two-seat turboprop trainer aircraft. They found a solution from Borsight Inc. in Ogden, Utah.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., announced a potential $2.2 billion contract to Borsight in late June for the T-6A avionics replacement program.
This program seeks to modernize and replace the aging avionics for the T-6A Texan aircraft and flight simulators with technology upgrades that involve mitigating component obsolescence, enhancing reliability, reducing sustainment costs.
Borsight will handle avionics upgrades for 442 T-6A aircraft, one test aircraft, one static aircraft, and flight simulators. The upgrade seeks to improve training realism and effectiveness for new Air Force pilots. The T-6A is for Air Force and Navy primary pilot training. It is a military derivative of the Swiss Pilatus PC-9.
New mission computers
The upgrade involves new mission computers with open-systems architectures. Work will retain all current T-6A capabilities and install FAA-compliant satellite navigation and new cockpit displays.
The T-6A Texan has been a primary trainer aircraft for the Air Force and Navy since 2000. Its tandem seating and digital displays are designed to prepare new pilots to train for advanced aircraft. The project will integrate simulated weapons and electronic warfare (EW) capabilities.
On this contract Borsight will do the work in Ogden, Utah; Randolph, Laughlin, and Shepard air force bases, Texas; Vance Air Force Base, Okla.; Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.; and Pensacola Naval Air Station Fla., and should be finished by January 2034.
For more information contact Borsight Inc. online at www.borsight.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.aflcmc.af.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
