Is time running out for Embraer’s A-29 facility in Florida?
October 28, 2024
Breaking Defense’s Valerie Insinna has reported that Bosco da Costa Jr., the chief executive of Embraer’s defense unit has said that its American final assembly line at Jacksonville, FL, is facing a production gap unless there are further FMS (foreign military sales) contracts for the A-29 Super Tucano.
Unusually, there are two production lines for the Embraer EMB314 Super Tucano, one in Brazil, producing aircraft sold directly by the Brazilian manufacturer, and one in Florida, producing aircraft kitted out and sold by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) via the US FMS (foreign military sales) mechanism. These are fitted with US-specific mission and communications systems by Sierra Nevada Corp.
The A-29 Super Tucano is the market leader in its class, with more than 260 sold. Customers include the Brazilian Air Force (33 A-29A & 66 A-29B), the National Air Force of Angola (6 aircraft), the Burkina Faso Air Force (3 A-29B), the Chilean Air Force (22 aircraft), the Colombian Aerospace Force (25 aircraft), the Dominican Air Force (8 aircraft), the Ecuadorian Air Force (18 aircraft), the Honduran Air Force (2 aircraft), the Indonesian Air Force (16 aircraft), the Mali Air Force (4 aircraft), the Mauritania Air Force (4 aircraft), the Paraguayan Air Force (6 aircraft), the Philippine Air Force (6 aircraft), the Turkmen Air Force (5 aircraft delivered in 2020–21) and the Uruguayan Air Force (6 aircraft).
Some 41 FMS orders include 26 aircraft to Afghanistan, six to Lebanon, 12 to Nigeria and three to the US Air Force.
The global fleet has now surpassed 550,000 flight hours, with 60,000 of those in combat, and
looks set to grow.
The Ghana Air Force originally ordered five aircraft in 2015, subsequently increasing the total to nine. None have been delivered but Sierra Nevada Corporation demonstrated its A-29 Super Tucano demonstrator aircraft (PT-ZTU) to the Ghana Air Force at the Accra Air Force Base on February 19, 2024.
Portugal expects to receive around 10 A-29Ns to replace the Portuguese Air Force’s Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet advanced jet trainer/light attack aircraft, which retired in January 2018. The A-29N is a light attack and close air support variant that was launched by Embraer in 2023 and that is intended to meet the technical requirements of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. These are likely to be assembled by OGMA in Portugal.
But Bosco da Costa Jr. says that: “We are running the [Jacksonville] facility without big orders coming from FMS. We are facing a gap of production there.” 2025 is seen as a critical year for orders if such a production gap is to be avoided.
With US involvement in Afghanistan at an end, and production for Lebanon and Nigeria complete, production at Jacksonville has slowed to its “minimal pace,” Bosco da Costa Jr. says.
“We are running the facility without big orders coming from FMS. We are facing a gap of production there. We are still fighting for some orders coming from FMS cases and even — why not — from the US government. I think we have 2025 as a year to fix it, trying to find another possibility regarding orders.”
The Jacksonville facility can produce up to around 24 Super Tucanos per year, but just four A-29s are in various stages of production at the moment, “allocated to current and near-term customers” though Embraer refused to specify which customer nations would receive the aircraft.
Embraer is reportedly expecting to book another two orders for A-29s this year, but these aircraft are expected to be produced in Brazil.
