Brazilian aerospace company Embraer has received a contract to deliver up to six A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to the Uruguayan Air Force.
The deal covers an initial aircraft, integrated logistics, mission equipment, and a flight simulator.
The plane is expected to operate for its usual applications in reconnaissance, aircrew preparations, border monitoring, and anti-illegal activities.
Delivery of the first Super Tucano is scheduled for 2025.
According to Embraer, Montevideo’s order is the country’s first combat aircraft procurement since 1981.
Uruguayan Defense Minister Armando Castaingdebat said that the aircraft will be a “great leap” to support the nation’s territorial sovereignty and missions against “crime in all its forms,”
Uruguayan Foreign Affairs Minister Omar Paganini added that the nation “seeks to strengthen its airspace surveillance and threat response capabilities, and it relies on Brazilian technology, which proposes a very suitable platform for these purposes, such as the A-29 Super Tucanos.”
Latest South American A-29 Operator
Embraer noted that the order makes Uruguay the sixth nation to employ the A-29 in South America after Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay.
“We are honored by the decision of the Uruguayan Air Force, another South American nation to choose the A-29 Super Tucano, an aircraft that is a reference in its segment in the international market,” Embraer Defense & Security CEO and President Bosco da Costa Jr. stated.
“With this acquisition, Uruguay will have differentiated capabilities that will greatly contribute to the surveillance of its borders and increase [Uruguayan Air Force’s] operational readiness.”
The Super Tucano
Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano is an 11.38-meter (37.3-foot) aircraft with a wingspan of 11.14 meters (36.5 feet).
It is powered by a 1,604-horsepower Pratt & Whitney PT6A-68C engine and a Hartzell five-bladed propeller for a top speed of 590 kilometers (367 miles) per hour, a range of 1,330 kilometers (826 miles), and an altitude of 10,668 meters (35,000 feet).
The plane is armed with machine and mini guns, rockets, unguided, cluster, and incendiary bombs, flare countermeasures, and air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.