Raytheon has announced plans to integrate its Griffin missile onto the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 light attack aircraft, aimed at providing a “cost-effective solution” for counterinsurgency operations.
According to Raytheon, the 20kg Griffin B is a precision guided, forward firing missile designed for rapid integration onto rotary, fixed-wing and ground-launched platforms. An ‘A’ variant is also currently in production and integrated onto the C-130 Harvest Hawk (an armed kit capability for the USMC’s KC-130Js), used as “an aft-eject missile designed for employment from non-conventional platforms”.
Raytheon may offer the AT-6 for the ADF’s Air 5428 Pilot Training System program, which will replace the PC-9s used in the Forward Air Controller training role by the RAAF’s 4SQN (as well as the PC-9s used for pilot training by 2FTS).
