Reliable sources, close to the operation, informed Aviacionline that the first of the 10 TC-12B / UC-12B Hurons, which should have arrived in mid / late June, continues without a certain date of arrival in the country because “news” keep appearing.
The first of the 10 Beechcraft, bought by the Argentine Air Force (FAA) from the surpluses of the US Navy, whose assigned registration is TC-117, made its first test flight last Friday, July 2.
During the flight, technical novelties arose that have to be corrected before being able to undertake the long flight to its new home safely.
The TC-117 will continue to be subjected to tests and verifications, as part of the mandatory tuning process, until the machine is in airworthy conditions for the ferry flight to Argentina.
Although this situation is far from being desirable, it is still to be expected since these are aircraft that were withdrawn from service after a long operating career and stored for more than 3 years.
The speed of the set-up work was also reduced because Argentina had incurred serious delays in payments to the contractor designated to provide the relevant technical services.
The visit of the FAA chief, Brigadier Xavier Julian Isaac to the 165th Airlift Wing and Air Dominance Center of the USAF, was primarily concerned with this matter. Normalize payments and streamline processes.
When the Hurons begin to be received, they will be painted with the standard Air Force low visibility gray scheme and will be distributed as follows:
- II Brigada Aérea (in Paraná), with 4 units
- III Brigada Aérea (inReconquista), with 1 unit
- V Brigada Aérea (in Villa Reynolds), with 1 unit
- VI Brigada Aérea (in Tandil), with 1 unit
- Base aérea de Morón, with 2 units
- Escuela de Aviación Militar (in Córdoba) with 1 unit
In the Air Force, the Hurons will have the mission of recovering the light load capacity, as well as the functions of liaison, logistical support, medical transfer and provide training to future pilots graduated from the Standardized Course for Transport Aviators (CEPAT for its initials in Spanish).
Finally, it must be added that a few days ago, the Minister of Defense Agustín Rossi, regarding the TC-12B, commented the following: “they will be very useful to generate routes within LADE (Líneas Aéreas del Estado), as a link between the different brigades and to improve surveillance and control capabilities of our maritime coastline.”
Obviously, the Hurons of the Argentine Air Force await a long and multifaceted operational career, when they finally join.
