Tuesday 16 May 2017

U.S. Air Force selects Textron's Scorpion jet and AT-6 for light attack aircraft demo


By: Valerie Insinna, May 15, 2017 

WASHINGTON — Textron’s Scorpion jet and AT-6 will be joining the A-29 Super Tucano in the Air Force’s light attack aircraft demonstration this summer, the company confirmed May 15.

“Textron Aviation Defense can confirm the Scorpion and AT-6 have both been invited by the United States Air Force to participate in the experimentation this summer to demonstrate their respective class-leading light attack capabilities,” a Textron spokeswoman said Monday in response to an emailed query from Defense News. 

The first set of demonstrations, which will be held this July at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, could potentially lead to a program of record, but as of yet no formal requirement exists for light attack aircraft.

However, Air Force officials — including Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein and Air Combat Command head Gen. Mike Holmes — have postulated that a buy of light aircraft could help mitigate certain readiness and training concerns. The service’s current inventory of aircraft is already overtaxed with worldwide operational missions, leaving few resources for high-end training. If it decides to purchase a small fleet of inexpensive, production-ready light aircraft, low-end missions could be offloaded to those planes, leaving its more sophisticated aircraft free for training and operations where specialized capability is needed.........Read entire article: defensenews.com


Related post:


EMB-314 Super Tucano: Details

Scorpion Attack Aircraft: Details
 

Beechcraft AT-6: Details

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