Procurement: Pakistan Trolls For Tweets

Archives

August 26, 2008:The U.S. is donating twenty pre-owned T-37 jet trainers to Pakistan. The T-37s are being taken from the U.S. storage facility (the "bone yard"), refurbished and shipped to Pakistan (which will pay for the shipping). Pakistan had requested the T-37s last year. Earlier this year, after more than half a century of service, the U.S. Air Forceretired the last of its twin jet T-37B training aircraft. The replacement is a single engine prop driven aircraft, the T-6A [PHOTO].

One of the most successful aircraft designs of the post-WorldWar II era,the Cessna T-37 is a two engine primary jet trainerwith a top speed of about 680 kilometers an hour. Designed in1953, theT-37, affectionately nicknamed the "Tweet," entered servicewith the Air Force in 1957. Over the next eight years. 1,268 T-37s were produced in several models, including a ground attack version, the A-37, which has a much higher speed (830 kilometers an hour) and somewhat different overall characteristics. Most T/A-37s were still flying at the end of the Cold War. But since then, they have been retired at a rapid rate.

The versatile T-37 proved an attractive investment for nations wishing to stretch their defense dollars, and was procured for use by the U.S. and 14 other countries. The oldest T-37s have logged over 20,000 hours of light time, with the average well over 12,000 hours.

By 1996, all USAF T-37Bs completed a SLEP refit, extending their total useful life to over 30,000 hours.Regarded as a "user friendly" aircraft, by now many T-37Bs are basically worn out.The T-6A was selected as its replacement because this aircraft, based on the very popular Pilatus PC-9, already had an excellent reputation as a trainer aircraft. But many nations still prefer the tweet, and the United States is constantly asked to provide some of its retired (to the bone yard) T-37s.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close