Article

2018-06-19 Science & Technology

Air Force tests two turboprops as potential A-10 "replacements"

[ArsTechnica] The US Air Force has kicked off the procurement for another round of wing replacements for A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, known affectionately by many as the Warthog. With new wings, the A-10s will help fill a gap left by the delayed volume delivery of F-35A fighters, which were intended to take over the A-10's close air support (CAS) role in "contested environments"‐places where enemy aircraft or modern air defenses would pose a threat to supporting aircraft. For now, the A-10 is being used largely in uncontested environments, where the greatest danger pilots face is small arms fire or possibly a Stinger-like man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) missile. But the Warthog is also being deployed to Eastern Europe as part of the NATO show of strength in response to Russia.

While the A-10 will keep flying through 2025 under current plans, Air Force leadership has perceived (or was perhaps convinced to see) a need for an aircraft that could take over the A-10's role in low-intensity and uncontested environments‐something relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain that could be flown from relatively unimproved airfields to conduct armed reconnaissance, interdiction, and close air support missions. The replacement would also double as advanced trainer aircraft for performing weapons qualifications and keeping pilots' flight-time numbers up.

So, last year the Air Force kicked off the Light Attack Experiment (OA-X), a four-aircraft competition to determine what would best fit that bill.

In the first phase, the Air Force tested four aircraft at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Three were turboprop aircraft already in the inventory of some US allies in some form: AirTractor and L3's AT-802L Longsword; Sierra Nevada and Embraer's A-29 Super Tucano; and Textron and AirLand LLC's Beechcraft AT-6B Wolverine. The fourth, the only jet aircraft in the group, was Textron and AirLand's Scorpion. Now, the Air Force has begun a second phase and has cut the field to two: the Beechcraft AT-6B Wolverine and the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano.

Posted by KBK 2018-06-19 09:20|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 Right. Cut out the jet-powered Scorpion and then kill the program because the F-35 (in low-intensity and uncontested environments‐something relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain that could be flown from relatively unimproved airfields to conduct armed reconnaissance, interdiction, and close air support missions) makes it unnecessary.

Posted by Bobby 2018-06-19 10:25|| 2018-06-19 10:25|| Front Page Top

#2 Gimme some low-speed, heavily armored, Brrrrrrrt!

Posted by Frank G 2018-06-19 10:42|| 2018-06-19 10:42|| Front Page Top

#3 The A-1D Spad2? Didn’t the Skyraider fit that bill rather nicely? I bet we have plans somewhere.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2018-06-19 10:59|| 2018-06-19 10:59|| Front Page Top

#4 Does anyone, anyone?, think the F-35 is going to operate under 10,000 feet in CAS? 'Drop One and Gone...' like the F-117 used to operate, maybe, but CAS...?
They will need to develop a fleet of Next-Gen Armored Drones for that.

Posted by magpie 2018-06-19 11:23|| 2018-06-19 11:23|| Front Page Top

#5 ...Not one of these aircraft will survive for any useful amount of time over a battlefield against a peer adversary. They're really good against the Taliban and ISIS, but against people with radar,MANPADS, and even 60s era fighters they will be criminally useless. I truly hope somebody at USAF has the good sense to say so.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2018-06-19 11:42|| 2018-06-19 11:42|| Front Page Top

#6 What you've got going here is someone in five sided funny farm is trying to gin up the one thing that the A-10 lacks: procurement officers to fight for it. The A-10 is a done thing; there's no way for anyone to build a little empire in it's development.
It's the same logic that has them building a new road rather than fix the potholes in the old one. It comes down to graft.

Posted by ed in texas 2018-06-19 14:09|| 2018-06-19 14:09|| Front Page Top

#7 The Air Farce just doesn't want to get their hands dirty with close air support or having to use one of those nasty old cannon to shoot down an aircraft.

To them war is a video game with pilots shooting down the enemy 50 miles away and playing solitaire on their flying iPhone on their way.

Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2018-06-19 14:12|| 2018-06-19 14:12|| Front Page Top

#8 The Air Farce just doesn't want to get their hands dirty with close air support or having to use one of those nasty old cannon to shoot down an aircraft.

And now the Navy wants to dump mobile theater missile defense on the Army without any additional resources. Maybe now is a time to revisit the whole DoD division of labor thingy.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-06-19 17:50|| 2018-06-19 17:50|| Front Page Top

#9 The Key West Agreement was a long time ago, 1948!, so it certainly is past time to sit down and 'have a think. about everything.

Posted by magpie 2018-06-19 19:17|| 2018-06-19 19:17|| Front Page Top

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