In an age of stealth fighters and hypersonic missiles, one of the most-discussed combat aircraft in Europe has a propeller. The Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, a Brazilian turboprop designed for counter-insurgency in the jungle, is now being studied as a cheap way to shoot down drones over NATO's eastern flank.
The reasoning is about cost. Shooting down a drone worth tens of thousands of dollars with a missile worth hundreds of thousands, fired from a fighter that costs thousands of dollars an hour to fly, cannot be sustained for long. A turboprop with two machine guns costs far less to operate.
Kurzinfo
- Hersteller: Embraer, Brazil
- Erster Flug: 2 June 1999 (production-standard aircraft)
- Im Einsatz: Since 2003
- Motor: Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68C turboprop, about 1,600 shp
- Built-in guns: Two 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings, 200 rounds each
- Höchstgeschwindigkeit: About 590 km/h (370 mph)
- Geliefert: More than 290 (Embraer, 2026), with about 20 air forces
- European customer: Portugal, 12 A-29N ordered in 2024
A Jungle Fighter With a Long Record
Embraer built the Super Tucano for the Brazilian Air Force's work over the Amazon: intercepting drug flights, patrolling borders and supporting troops. It entered service in 2003. Wikipedia sums up the design intent as an aircraft designed to be a low-cost system operated in low-threat environments.
It has seen a lot of combat. Colombia flew its first combat missions with it in January 2007 against FARC guerrillas. In June 2009 a Brazilian A-29 fired the first warning shot under Brazil's shoot-down law at a Cessna coming in from Bolivia. In Afghanistan, A-29s bought through the US Light Air Support programme and assembled in Jacksonville, Florida, by Sierra Nevada Corporation and Embraer gave the Afghan Air Force its own precision strike capability until the 2021 collapse.
Megaprojects on how a propeller plane became a 21st-century war machine.
Why Drones Changed the Maths
Russia's long-range attack drones, first propeller-driven Shahed types and now jet-powered versions, have changed how air defence works. Ukraine has shot down huge numbers of them with guns, helicopters, interceptor drones and fighters. Over NATO territory, allied jets have downed stray drones over Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, often with expensive missiles.
Embraer announced in 2025 that it was modifying the A-29 for counter-drone work, and it is working with Valkyrie Aero on the Gunslinger targeting system to help the aircraft engage small drones. Portugal became the first European A-29N customer in 2024 with 12 aircraft, and the Latvian Air Force has been studying the type explicitly for counter-drone missions.
The Counter-Argument: Too Slow for Jet Drones
Not everyone thinks a turboprop is enough. Estonia's new defence minister, Martin Herem, came back from Kyiv in October 2026 arguing that Russia's newer jet-powered drones, flying at more than 400 km/h according to Ukraine's defence ministry, may need light jets instead. Estonia already flies two leased L-39 trainers and has pilots for them.
The A-29's top speed of about 590 km/h gives it some margin over a 400 km/h drone, but not much, and less still against a target that dives. That is the real debate in the Baltics: whether the cheapest crewed interceptor is a propeller aircraft, a light jet such as the L-39, or no crewed aircraft at all.
AiirSource Military footage of A-29 Super Tucano live-fire training.
Afghan Air Force A-29 Super Tucanos flying close air support.
Sources: Wikipedia (Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano); Air Data News; The Baltic Sentinel / Postimees; Defense News; Embraer
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