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Science & Technology
Meet the combat crop duster, armed and armored to join the fight (Video)
2017-08-17
[FOX] Crop dusters regularly fly the skies above America’s heartland, but this combat crop duster is unlike anything Americans have ever seen.

This plane is loaded up with weapons and fortified with armor to take the fight to America’s enemies and help protect U.S. forces on the ground.

L3’s Aerospace Systems worked with Air Tractor to transform the classic crop duster into a combat crop duster ready to strike.

Dubbed Longsword, they’ve taken Air Tractor’s AT-802 crop duster and modified it for attack, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Posted by:Besoeker

#19  #18 Did they toss the engineering drawings, too?
Posted by: Bobby 2017-08-17 18:22

Bobby,

They pretty much tossed everything that could be used to build a new airframe. It costs money to keep that stuff stored properly, and Fairchild was broke.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2017-08-17 19:25  

#18  Did they toss the engineering drawings, too?
Posted by: Bobby   2017-08-17 18:22  

#17  ..well, give one to the Chinese to back engineer, if you want it cheaper, and soon.(do I need to put a /sarc on that?)
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-08-17 17:17  

#16  #6 Why not just buy more new A10's . Clearly the greatest ground attack aircraft to date, just buy more.
Posted by: NoMoreBS 2017-08-17 11:13

NoMore,

The tooling and jigs for the A-10 were sold for scrap in the early 90s after Fairchild blew a competency gasket trying to build the T-46 Eaglet - a trainer with so many problems and so unstable that it probably would have killed more pilots than it trained. Fairchild had to mortgage everything it had to keep the lights on after the T-46 project went south, and they were paying for the storage on the Hog tooling - USAF hadn't yet decided whether or not to put it in long term storage the way they did with so many other aircraft. Fairchild sold it to save the storage fees and get what they could for scrap, and the USAF didn't lift a finger to stop them.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2017-08-17 17:06  

#15  That's only if the "crop dusters" don't shoot the F-35 down first! From what I've been reading it seem easier to do than one would think.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance   2017-08-17 15:15  

#14  i ran out of zeros.

The F35 might "paint" targets for these "crop dusters".
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2017-08-17 13:04  

#13  A10 costs 17,000 dollars per air hour
these cost about 500

What's the F35 going to cost per air hour? The one they claim will replace the A10's mission requirement.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-08-17 12:54  

#12  I suppose one could 'paint' a crowd with a UV or RF reactive dispersant, for future retrieval or identification. The CS launchers could do that though.
Posted by: Skidmark   2017-08-17 12:19  

#11  >Why not just buy more new A10's .
A10 costs 17,000 dollars per air hour
these cost about 500
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2017-08-17 12:12  

#10  Wow Darth, when has the USAF ever factored cheap into anything it procures?
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2017-08-17 12:12  

#9  Good for civil war too
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-08-17 12:02  

#8  And these are a hell of a lot cheaper to buy and operate than A-10s. Plus the air force will allow NCOs to fly these. Jets are reserved for the officer elite....
Posted by: DarthVader   2017-08-17 11:56  

#7  ...one problem. The Air Force. Ever notice it has been trying to kill it for 27 years. They still are. Beyond time to move the mission and force structure to the Army. The Army in turn can give up the next gen attack helicopter which overlaps in mission profiles.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-08-17 11:19  

#6  Why not just buy more new A10's . Clearly the greatest ground attack aircraft to date, just buy more.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2017-08-17 11:13  

#5  Nope, not gonna replace the A10, but very good for fighting against guerrillas and lightly armed enemies. They can go low and slow and loiter over the target area for a very long time and then rain rockets and lead on multiple targets.

Have the A-10 with these in the boxes would be a nice combination to have.
Posted by: DarthVader   2017-08-17 10:47  

#4  Just hired one for spraying.
Fantastic aerobat.
Posted by: Skidmark   2017-08-17 10:45  

#3  Useful for exterminating an opium crop. Cut the source of funding. Just saying.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-08-17 10:14  

#2  It's not going to replace the A10.
Posted by: jpal   2017-08-17 10:11  

#1  And bio-warfare missions where they crop dust anthrax on groups of people. Or tear gas to disperse rioting crowds.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309   2017-08-17 09:25  

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