Textron Aviation Defense announced the delivery of its 1000th Beechcraft T-6 Texan II on October 12. This came as the global Texan II fleet marked a major milestone, having now surpassed five million flight hours

The company's 1,000th turboprop trainer was delivered to the Columbian Air Force, specifically Air Combat Command No.1 (CACOM-1) at Capitan German Olano Moreno Air Base in Palanquero, Columbia. CACOM-1 operates a fleet of five Texan IIs to train its junior pilots.

Surpassing five million flight hours has come via the Texan II being in service across two NATO military flying schools, these being NATO's Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) and the Euro NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) unit in Texas, US.

Additional to the two NATO flying schools, thirteen countries across the globe operate the Texan II to train their student pilots. These include Argentina, Canada, Columbia, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Thailand, Tunisia, US and the UK. Recently, it was announced by the USAF that a 14th nation was to procure the T-6C Texan II as part of a foreign military sales programme.

Five variants of the Texan II are in existence, the T-6A and T-6B are used by the USAF and US Navy as joint primary aircraft training systems. The T-6C is the exportable training aircraft produced by Textron Defense and the T-6C+ is the armed variant of the former. The final variant is the T-6D operated by the US Army, the D variant is a hybrid of both the T-6B and T-6C with newer standard avionics, and a hard point wing providing the capability to mount six wing-mounted pylons.

Ron Draper, president and CEO of Textron Aviation said during the delivery: “It is an honour to celebrate the 1,000th delivery of a truly legendary aircraft.

“The world’s most advanced global air forces and pilots trust us to deliver a great aircraft that enables them to make the world a better, more secure place. Our world-class workforce goes above and beyond to design, manufacture, deliver and support the world’s premier military flight trainer. It is an honour that partner nations continue to put their confidence in the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II as the gold standard in training capabilities.