The Air Force, which is evaluating potential candidates for a fleet of light-attack aircraft, is trying to avoid adding unnecessary requirements that could hamper its work, a service official said May 18.
The Air Force is assessing existing, “off-the-shelf” planes that require “only minor modifications” at most, said James Dunn, deputy director for plans, programs and requirements at Air Combat Command. To keep its review on track, it is trying to prevent the kind of “requirements creep” that often plagues weapon system programs.
“We’re trying to discipline ourselves — because sometimes we’re our own worst enemies — to make sure that we constrain the nice-to-haves and look solely at the must-haves so that we can completely evaluate whether or not an off-the-shelf product is suitable for us,” Dunn said at an Air Force Association (AFA) event.
While the Air Force has looked into the possibility of adding self-protection equipment, officials believe that existing light-attack planes could remain relatively safe without such gear because they could fire weapons, such as laser-guided bombs or rockets, at standoff ranges from targets.
“We think we have an appropriate balance here,” Dunn said. Unlike the A-1 attack aircraft used in the Vietnam War, “these guys don’t have to get close enough to see the whites of their eyes. Will they be invulnerable? No, but neither is the F-22 if he’s in the wrong part of the envelope in the wrong environment.”
The Air Force is currently conducting a second experiment to increase its understanding of light-attack aircraft. The A-29 Super Tucano turboprop from Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) and Embraer Defense & Security and the AT-6 Wolverine turboprop from Textron [TXT] Aviation Defense are participating in the three-month event, which began May 7 at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico (Defense Daily, May 7).
Air Force officials have said they would like to buy a light-attack fleet quickly after conducting the second experiment, which is focused on how the planes share information, what sensors they should carry and how they should be operated and maintained. The Air Force is expected to issue a request for proposals as early as October and award a contract for up to several hundred planes within six months of the RFP’s release (Defense Daily, May 14).
Light-attack advocates say the low-cost aircraft could ease the anti-terrorism workload on the Air Force’s expensive fighter jets and improve interoperability with allies that cannot afford fighters. According to a new report by the AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, operating a light-attack aircraft would cost about $2,000 per flight hour, compared to more than $19,000 for an F-16 and almost $62,000 for an F-22.