Embraer,
SÃO JOSÉ DOS CAMPOS, Brazil: Embraer confirms the sale of eight Super Tucano aircraft to the government of the Dominican Republic through a contract that was finalized at the end of last year. The aircraft will be operated by the nation’s Air Force to perform internal security and border patrol missions, within an operations theater focusing on fighting the drug traffic. This is the third export contract for the highly successful aircraft, after sales that were made to the Air Forces of Colombia (FAC) and Chile (FACH).
The choice made by the Dominican Republic Air Force shows how the aircraft’s extreme versatility, associated with its good performance for both training and operational missions and with low acquisition, operating and maintenance costs, makes the Super Tucano one of the best multi-mission airplanes on the market.
To date, 63 units of the Super Tucano have already been delivered to the Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira – FAB) and 25 to the FAC, and they are successfully used for border surveillance and other operational missions. In all, 144 aircraft have been sold to four Latin American customers.
The FAC received its 25th Super Tucano in August of last year, thus finalizing the deliveries begun to this customer, in December 2006. The contract was the first export of this aircraft, and the agreement included TOSS (Training and Operation Support System), an advanced training and operational support system with ground stations. The FACH agreement for the sale of 12 aircraft was also announced by Embraer in August 2008.
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The Super Tucano went into operation with the FAB in December 2003, to be used for pilot training, as well as for operational missions. This capability ranks the Super Tucano as the world’s only aircraft in production that is able to handle advanced pilot training and surveillance and counter-insurgency missions, even at night, using night vision goggles and electro-optical and infrared sensors.
The Super Tucano is an innovative evolution of the world-renowned basic training aircraft Tucano, of which around 650 are in service with 15 air forces, worldwide.
The Super Tucano was designed to operate in the most complex combat settings, including the capability of night vision, smart weaponry, and data link technology. Besides a reinforced structure for operations on rustic landing fields, the aircraft has an advanced navigation and weapon aiming system that ensures high mission precision and reliability, even under extreme conditions and without logistic support.
The aircraft is in full production on a very active and flexible assembly line, in line with Embraer’s ability to meet its customer needs and deliver aircraft in short time spans. It is very important for the operational life cycle of the aircraft that a broad-based, efficient and reliable logistical support system be in place, throughout the world, for the aircraft that are flying on five continents.
In the Defense and Government segment, this system supports 650 Tucanos, 250 Bandeirantes, and many other aircraft in over 20 of the world’s air forces. As for commercial aviation, Embraer provides support for over 1,000 regional jets from the ERJ 145 family and 500 E-Jets (a family of jets with 70 to 122 seats), worldwide.
Embraer is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jets up to 120 seats, and one of Brazil's leading exporters. Embraer's headquarters are located in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, and it has offices, industrial operations and customer service facilities in Brazil, the United States, France, Portugal, China and Singapore. Founded in 1969, the Company designs, develops, manufactures and sells aircraft for the Commercial Aviation, Executive Aviation, and Defense and Government segments. The Company also provides after sales support and services to customers worldwide. On September 30, 2008, Embraer had a workforce of 23,745 employees and a firm order backlog of US$ 21.6 billion.
