Posted by Courtney E. Howard
TUCSON, 12 Oct. 2011. Pilots in Hawker Beechcraft Defense Company (HBDC)’s AT-6 Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft deployed precision-guided munitions during weapons tests at the Barry M. Goldwater Range, Ariz. Pilots in the AT-6 dropped four U.S. Air Force GBU-12 500 lb Paveway II laser-guided bombs and four GBU-58 Paveway II laser-guided bombs from Raytheon—all of which hit the intended targets.
The weapons delivery events, conducted between Sept. 28 and Oct. 5, were part of the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Test Center’s (AATC’s) ongoing operational assessment.
“The weapons deployment was a huge success thanks to the teamwork of Hawker Beechcraft, Lockheed Martin, CMC Electronics, L-3 WESCAM, Raytheon Missile Systems, and the Air National Guard,” says Jim Maslowski, president, Hawker Beechcraft Defense Company. “This testing is another major step in the evolution of the AT-6 and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. The 100 percent precision weapon hit rate was no surprise to anyone who has watched the AT-6 team in action. The aircraft continues to perform as well or better than we anticipated and is ready for production.”
The AT-6 typically flew three sorties per day during the two-week deployment, employing 60 BDU-33, BDU-50, GBU-12, and GBU-58 general-purpose and precision munitions. The AT-6 also performed .50 caliber machine gun air-to-air gunnery with an integrated lead computing gun sight against a towed target.
