Tunisia Buys 4 Cessna Grand Caravan EX Aircraft for Surveillance, Reconnaissance Missions

ATI Engineering Services, LLC awarded Textron Aviation a contract to deliver four Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft to the Tunisian Air Force.

The Cessna Grand Caravan EX is designed and manufactured by Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. company. The fleet of Grand Caravan EX single-engine turboprops will aid the Air Force in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the country. The aircraft is engineered for high payloads as well as short and unimproved runways.

ATI Engineering Services will modify and equip the aircraft with an electro-optical/infra-red sensor, operator console, tactical radio, video data link and night vision compatible lighting. These are the first Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft for the Tunisian Air Force.

Since 2014, the U.S. Government has provided grant aid funding for 16 Grand Caravan EX aircraft procured through Foreign Military Sale cases throughout Africa, with Tunisia being the latest recipient. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) intent is to field multiple iterations of this configuration throughout Africa, and to streamline logistics support and enhance partner nation interoperability, both of which is expected to reduce costs to the partner nation and to the U.S. Government.