Raytheon Aircraft Company has become Hawker Beechcraft Inc., under a sale negotiated between Raytheon Company and GS Capital Partners, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs and Onex Partners. Hawker Beechcraft now owns RAC facilities in Wichita and Salina, Kan., Little Rock, Ark., and Dallas. The “new” company traces its lineage to Beech Aircraft Corp., formed in 1932 and which became a Raytheon subsidiary in 1980, and the Hawker Siddeley Corp., which bought DeHavilland Aircraft in the 1960s. In 1995, the Air Force and Navy chose the Beech MkII as the new joint primary undergraduate trainer, which became the T-6A Texan II. The T-6A replaces the T-37 for the Air Force, which has received more than 200 of its planned purchase of around 400 Texans.
Airmen and Guardians in the Active and Reserve component, as well as civilian employees, in “mission critical and high-risk populations” are now required to receive influenza vaccinations annually to “preserve force readiness,” according to a recent Department of the Air Force memo.