Several Latin American nations are buying the Super Tucano for use in anti-drug and counterinsurgency efforts. Even the U.S. and Britain are looking into the propeller-driven craft.Unsleek and unsupersonic, the Super Tucano hardly fits most people's concept of a modern warplane. But Brazilian manufacturer Embraer is finding a growing market for the retro "light attack" propeller-driven aircraft among nations looking to secure their borders, fight drugs and support counterinsurgency operations.Ecuador is one such customer. The two Super Tucanos that flew into Manta air base late last month were the first delivered on a 24-plane order that President Rafael Correa placed shortly after Colombian armed forces entered Ecuador's airspace in March 2008 to kill a high-ranking FARC rebel leader, Raul Reyes.Although the $250-million purchase was seen as a reaction to Colombia's violation of its sovereignty, Correa in his weekly television address Feb. 6 said that the aircraft acquisition didn't signal an arms buildup. Rather, he said, the planes were replacing Ecuador's fleet of mostly 30-year-old A-37 Dragonfly aircraft made by Cessna.But Correa is wrestling with a problem that the planes can help him confront: the persistent presence in his territory of guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or, FARC. Without specifically mentioning FARC, Correa said the aircraft would help support the Ecuadorean military as it fights "regular and irregular forces" inside the country's borders.(It was a Colombian air force Super Tucano that dropped the "smart bomb" that killed Reyes, then second in command of the FARC, as he slept at a camp a mile inside Ecuadorean territory.)Relations between Colombia and Ecuador have improved since the 2008 incursion, when Correa briefly mobilized troops and froze trans-border commerce. Recently, the neighbors have reestablished diplomatic ties and resumed cooperation concerning drug interdiction and the FARC.Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in 2008 justified the air operation, saying that Ecuador looked the other way when it came to the presence of the FARC. More recently, he thanked Correa after Ecuadorean armed forces killed three suspected FARC rebels in Ecuadorean territory Jan. 18.The two-seater Super Tucano's top speed is only about 350 mph. But it has a 620-mile combat radius and can stay aloft for six hours. Introduced in 2003, the plane can be outfitted with two heavy machine guns as well as 2 tons of guided bombs and rockets, said Robert Munks, an Americas analyst for IHS Jane's military consultants in London.With their uses in training, surveillance and offensive campaigns, the Super Tucanos fit the bill for many Third World countries, and at $10 million each, are relatively cheap, Munks said.After five years in service with the Colombian air force, the planes have proved their worth in anti-drug and counterinsurgency operations, he said.Chile and the Dominican Republic have bought Super Tucanos. An Embraer spokesman declined to comment on reports that Indonesia and Peru have also placed orders.The Pentagon is considering buying 200 of the aircraft, and Britain's Royal Air Force is weighing the possibility of replacing its fleet of Harrier vertical takeoff jets with Super Tucanos instead of Lockheed Martin F-35Bs, which cost 10 times as much.If