T-6 Texan II

The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop basic trainer derived from the Pilatus PC-9, built in Wichita, Kansas, by Raytheon Aircraft, then Hawker Beechcraft and, since 2014, Textron Aviation. Selected in the 1990s for the US Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS), it entered service in 2001 and replaced the T-37B Tweet in the US Air Force and the T-34C Turbo Mentor in the US Navy, which between them fly some 740 aircraft as of 2026. Export versions serve or are on order with fifteen other air arms, and the armed AT-6 Wolverine derivative flies with the Royal Thai Air Force.

Development

Pilatus had teamed with British Aerospace in the 1980s to offer the PC-9 to the Royal Air Force, which chose the Short Tucano; a similar arrangement with Beechcraft followed for JPATS, the US programme to replace both services' primary trainers with one type. Beechcraft reworked the PC-9 extensively into its Model 3000, which won the competition in 1995. The designation T-6 and the name Texan II recall the North American trainer on which US pilots learned to fly in the 1940s and 1950s.

The first T-6As reached Moody AFB and Randolph AFB in 2000–2001 and the full-rate production contract followed in December 2001. In April 2007 the Department of Defense reported JPATS to Congress for a 25 to 50 percent cost overrun, a Nunn-McCurdy breach rare for a programme deep in full-rate production. Raytheon sold the business as Hawker Beechcraft in 2007; Textron acquired Beechcraft in 2014 and the type is now marketed by Textron Aviation Defense.

Design

The T-6 is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with tandem seating under a single canopy, the student in front and the instructor behind, both with Martin-Baker Mk 16 ejection seats and a canopy-fracturing system. It has retractable tricycle landing gear and is stressed to +7.0/−3.5 g for aerobatic training. The single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turboprop delivers 1,100 shp (820 kW) and drives a four-blade Hartzell constant-speed propeller of 8 ft 1 in (2.46 m) diameter.

The airframe is 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m) long with a span of 33 ft 5 in (10.19 m) and a maximum takeoff weight of 6,500 lb (2,948 kg). Maximum speed is about 316 kn (585 km/h), range some 900 nmi (1,700 km) and the service ceiling 31,000 ft (9,400 m). The T-6B introduced a digital cockpit — a head-up display, six multifunction displays and HOTAS controls; the T-6C adds wing hardpoints for external tanks, practice stores and light weapons. The AT-6 Wolverine goes further, with a reinforced structure, a 1,600 shp (1,200 kW) PT6A-68D, a datalink and an electro-optical/infrared sensor turret, and carries guided bombs, rockets, air-to-ground missiles and gun pods for light attack and armed reconnaissance.

Operational History

United States, 2000s–2010s

Laughlin AFB began flying the T-6 in 2003, Vance completed its transition in 2006, Columbus retired its last T-37 in April 2008 and the final USAF Tweets left Sheppard in the summer of 2009. The Air Force flies the T-6A for primary pilot and combat systems officer training under Air Education and Training Command; the Navy uses it for flight officer training at NAS Pensacola and trains Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard student pilots on the glass-cockpit T-6B at Whiting Field and Corpus Christi.

Beechcraft offered the AT-6 for the USAF's Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance requirement but was excluded — a notice posted to the wrong address denied it time to protest — and lost again in 2013. The August 2017 Light Attack Experiment brought the type back: the AT-6 and the A-29 were named the two finalists in February 2018 and tested further at Davis-Monthan AFB from May to July 2018.

In the last week of January 2018 a cluster of unexplained physiological events among T-6 crews at Columbus, Vance and Sheppard led Nineteenth Air Force to halt Texan II flying on 1 February 2018. The pause allowed the root causes to be examined and mitigation measures briefed to aircrews.

The 2020s

In March 2020 the USAF ordered two AT-6E Wolverines for continued experimentation. Delivered in 2021 to the 81st Fighter Squadron, they were returned to Beechcraft in June 2022, a month before the type received USAF military type certification, and passed to the US Naval Test Pilot School in September 2023. The US Army flies four T-6Ds from Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, for test support and chase work.

On 27 July 2022 the US military grounded hundreds of T-6s over a suspected defect in the ejection seats' cartridge-actuated devices. In May 2026 a Vance-based T-6A belly-landed at McConnell AFB, Kansas, after its landing gear failed to deploy; both pilots walked away.

Export customers

In Canada, some 25 CT-156 Harvard IIs were procured for the NATO Flying Training in Canada programme at 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, owned and maintained by the contractor and leased to the Royal Canadian Air Force; two were lost in non-fatal crashes in 2014 and 2017, and 22 remain as of 2026. Greece received 25 T-6A and 20 armed T-6A NTA, Israel 20 T-6A (nicknamed Efroni) from July 2009, and Iraq 15 T-6A delivered to Tikrit between December 2009 and November 2010.

Morocco bought 24 T-6Cs in October 2009. Mexico ordered six T-6C+ in January 2012 and six more in October 2013 to replace its Pilatus PC-7s, the Mexican Navy two in March 2014, and further orders have taken the fleets to 55 air force and 13 navy aircraft as of 2026. New Zealand bought 11 T-6C in January 2014 to replace the CT/4 Airtrainer, all delivered by February 2015 and flown by No. 14 Squadron at Ohakea. The United Kingdom's Military Flying Training System brought ten, later 14, T-6Cs — Texan T1 in RAF service — to No. 72 Squadron at RAF Valley in place of the Tucano. Argentina took the first of 12 T-6C+ in October 2017, Tunisia had 12 approved in October 2019 and eight in service by 2024, and Colombia's ten T-6Cs were all in service by 2026.

Thailand ordered 12 T-6TH trainers in 2020 and eight AT-6TH Wolverines in 2021; the Wolverines reached Wing 41 at Chiang Mai from 2024. Vietnam received 12 T-6Cs, the last three at Tan Son Nhat in September 2025, for the 920th Regiment of the Air Force Officer's College. Japan selected the type in December 2024 to replace the Fuji T-7 and signed a first contract in December 2025.

Operators

As of 2026 the United States Air Force flies about 440 T-6As and the United States Navy about 290 T-6A/B, with four T-6Ds in the US Army. Abroad the type serves with Mexico (55 air force, 13 navy), Greece (45), Morocco (24), Canada (22), Israel (20), Thailand (12 T-6TH plus the AT-6TH fleet), Iraq (15), the United Kingdom (14), Argentina (12), Vietnam (12), New Zealand (11), Colombia (10) and Tunisia (8); Japan is a future operator.

Accidents

A US Navy T-6B crashed into a residential area near Foley, Alabama, on 23 October 2020, killing both crew. On 13 May 2024 a USAF instructor died when the ejection seat of a T-6A fired on the ground; the handle had been pulled accidentally while he was not strapped to the parachute. On 29 January 2026 a Royal Thai Air Force AT-6TH of 411 Squadron, delivered only in November 2024, crashed in Chom Thong district, Chiang Mai, during a combat search-and-rescue training sortie, killing both pilots.

Variants

• T-6A Texan II: Standard version for the USAF, US Navy flight officer training and the Hellenic Air Force.
• T-6A NTA Texan II: Armed T-6A for Greece (20 built), with rocket pods, gun pods, external tanks and bombs.
• CT-156 Harvard II: T-6A for the NATO Flying Training in Canada programme.
• T-6B Texan II: Glass-cockpit version with HUD, six MFDs and HOTAS; US Navy primary trainer.
• T-6C Texan II: T-6B with wing hardpoints, the standard export model; T-6C+ for Mexico and Argentina.
• T-6D Texan II: US Army support, test and chase aircraft derived from the T-6B/C.
• T-6TH / T-6JP Texan II: T-6C derivatives for Thailand (local designation B.F.22) and Japan.
• AT-6B Wolverine: Initial armed derivative with datalink, EO/IR sensors, reinforced structure and 1,600 shp PT6A-68D.
• AT-6E Wolverine: Production light attack version, USAF type-certified in July 2022.
• AT-6TH Wolverine: AT-6E for the Royal Thai Air Force, designated B.J.8 (formerly B.JF.22).