The Air Force’s awaited release of a final request for proposals for a light attack aircraft (LAA) has been pushed back to early next year.
The service intended to release the request by the end of 2018, and sources on Dec. 18 told Defense Daily that as of Monday, it had been expected by Dec. 21.
“The Air Force does not anticipate release of the final Light Attack Request for Proposal by the end of the calendar year as we complete additional analysis,” said Capt. Hope Cronin, Air Force public affairs officer in a Tuesday email to Defense Daily.
Textron Aviation Defense [TXT] and a Sierra Nevada Corp. [SNC]-Embraer team are each competing for the contract, pitching the Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine and A-29 Super Tucano turboprops, respectively. Two draft RFPs were released since early August.
The Air Force has not yet revealed how many aircraft could be included in a future contract, nor the type of equipment it would require. Analysts have estimated the service could request between 100 and 300 aircraft, depending on budget availability and need.
The fiscal year 2019 defense appropriations bill includes $100 million for procurement and long-lead materials related to the light attack program. Should the program continue to move forward, the Air Force has previously said it expects to award a contract by late 2019.
A Congressional Budget Office report released Dec. 12 that outlines the potential cost to replace the Air Force’s fleet pegged a light attack aircraft unit cost at $24 million. Secretary Heather Wilson has previously said the service has allocated $2.4 billion for LAA procurement between 2020 and 2027.
Taco Gilbert, SNC’s senior vice president of integrated tactical solutions, told Defense Daily that a light attack aircraft buy still makes sense for the Air Force in the current fiscal and operational environment.
“We know that there are a number of recapitalization challenges for the U.S. Air Force, and trying to insert a new program into a budget is challenging, even under the best of circumstances,” he said.
Should the aircraft be procured, they would be used for light attack and close air support during counterterrorism missions and other efforts in permissive environments, the Air Force has previously said.
The goal is to free up fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft for the high-end fight and provide relief to the service’s aging A-10 attack aircraft, Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters in 2017 for the light attack demonstration kickoff at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.
But the Air Force has made plans on how it would allocate the light attack aircraft within its forces depending on the number of units included in a future budget, Gilbert noted. If it turns out to be less than 100, it’s likely those aircraft would fall under the purview of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), who already perform a number of partner-nation-building missions, he added.
If the Air Force opts to buy more than 200 aircraft, “Air Combat Command sees that they have a much larger play, because now they can build out the system to start training and seasoning their fighter pilots across the entire combat force,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert, a retired Air Force brigadier general who served as director of strategic plans, requirements and programs at Air Mobility Command, noted that one of the Air Force’s objectives for the light attack aircraft program is to build partner nation capacity. The A-29 is currently being flown by 13 nations, and the Philippines and Nigeria have committed to procuring the aircraft, he noted.
“The ability to operate the same equipment … builds those relationships and empowers those partner nations to take on a greater percentage, a greater load of their own defense,” he said.
That has occurred in Afghanistan with the Afghan Air Force flying the A-29, he noted. SNC and Embraer on Tuesday delivered its latest aircraft to Kabul, with three more to go under their scheduled delivery of 26 aircraft, he said.
Textron continues to look forward to submitting the AT-6 for the LAA program, said Brett Pierson, Textron Aviation Defense vice president of light attack and Scorpion aircraft.
“The AT-6 Wolverine meets the full spectrum of LAA requirements and capitalizes on the legacy of thousands of our proven DoD aircraft produced since World War II, including the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, Cessna T-37 Tweet, Beechcraft T-34 Mentor and Cessna A-37 Dragonfly, the Beechcraft T-1A Jayhawk, Beechcraft C-12 family, and the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II, currently in use by nearly a dozen nations,” he said in an email. “Our highly successful completion of the training, flight, weapons, maintenance and sustainment experiment conducted by the Air Force positions us well for this acquisition decision.”
If selected, the AT-6 would be built at Textron’s facility in Wichita, Kansas. The A-29 would be built at Embraer’s Jacksonville, Florida facility.