It is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turboprop engine in tractor configuration with an aluminum, 97-inch (8.1 ft; 2.5 m), four-blade, constant-speed, variable pitch, non-reversing, feathering propeller assembly and has retractable tricycle landing gear.

The T-6 is a development of the Pilatus PC-9, modified by Beechcraft to enter the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) competition in the 1990s.

It is unusual for a program so far into full-rate production to experience significant enough cost overruns to trigger this congressional notification.

[8] The Texan failed to qualify for the Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance program, because the USAF mailed the exclusion notice to the wrong address, leaving the company with no time to protest the decision.

[9] But the official mail failure gave Hawker-Beechcraft a further legal justification, as they had told the USAF they planned to file a legal challenge even before the official notice had been mailed and brought its considerable political influence to bear against the USAF decision against their candidate with one Kansas Congressman stating, "It is simply wrong for the Obama administration to hire a Brazilian company to handle national security when we have a qualified and competent American company that can do the job.

Following this, it decided to continue experimenting with two non-developmental aircraft, the AT-6 Wolverine derivative of the T-6 Texan II and the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano.

[12] During the last week of January 2018, a cluster of unexplained physiological events involving the T-6 occurred at Columbus, Vance, and Sheppard Air Force Bases.

The pause was intended to enable the Air Force to "examine the root causes of the incidents, educate and listen to aircrew, develop and deliver mitigation solutions."

[19] In September 2023, the two Wolverines were transferred from storage at Beechcraft to the United States Naval Test Pilot School.

[20] The CT-156 Harvard II is a variant used for pilot instruction in the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC),[21] located at 15 Wing, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

[25] On 9 June 2008, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced a possible FMS sale to Israel of 25 T-6As for the Israeli Air Force.

[38][full citation needed] The contract for ten aircraft was signed by Affinity Flying Training Services and Beechcraft Defense on 4 February 2016.

The sale is intended to provide replacement for the aging trainer fleet of Tunisian Air Force and to train pilots for counter-terrorism and border security missions.