Venezuela is close to signing a contract to acquire up to 30 new armed trainers and is expected to choose by the end of this month between the Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KO-1 and Pilatus PC-9M.
Sources say KAI appears to have been tentatively selected and is confident it will soon be awarded a formal contract for 20-30 aircraft.
The PC-9 is considered a long shot because Pilatus does not sell armed trainers. As a result, Venezuela would have to procure arms separately and install them on the aircraft.
The Super Tucano may be at a disadvantage because it is 30-40% more expensive than the KO-1, but Embraer is still lobbying hard for the contract.
A KAI victory would provide a significant boost for its KO-1/KT-1 programme. So far KAI has exported only seven KT-1 unarmed basic trainers, which were delivered to Indonesia last year as part of a counter-trade deal.
KAI only launched the KO-1 programme last year with an initial order from South Korea for 20 aircraft (Flight International, 11-17 November 2003). This order was needed to keep the KO-1/KT-1 production line going because domestic deliveries of the basic trainer variant, the KT-1, were completed late last year. KAI also plans to test fly later this year a third variant called the XKT-1C, an unarmed aircraft with a glass cockpit aimed at potential foreign operators.
Source: Flight International
