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Momentum Builds For U.S. Air Force Light Attack Buy Lara Seligman Support is growing in the top ranks of the U.S. Air Force for the rapid purchase of an off-the-shelf light attack aircraft to fight terrorists in the Middle East. But two big questions remain: What is the timeline for the acquisition, and how many aircraft will the service eventually buy? The Air Force is laying the groundwork to procure the new type as soon as 2019, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, Jr., the military deputy in the service’s acquisition office, tells Aviation Week. Bunch has directed a team to develop an acquisition strategy to buy a nondevelopmental light attack aircraft, complete with a plan for manning, sustaining and basing the new platform. He has already held one “extended” meeting with the team and is planning a second for this month. Air Force could ask Congress to reprogram funds to buy the new fleet as soon as fiscal 2019 Light attack aligns directly with the National Defense Strategy, Air Force believes Service working to finalize an acquisition strategy Analysts believe buying sooner rather than later is key If Bunch is satisfied with the strategy the team brings to the table, he says he may ask the chief of staff and secretary of the Air Force to approve a reprogramming request to buy the aircraft in fiscal 2019—at least a full year ahead of schedule. Currently, the Air Force has budgeted procurement funding starting in fiscal 2020 to buy the new fleet, Bunch says.

Sierra Nevada/Embraer’s A-29 will compete in the U.S. Air Force’s second light attack experiment, the companies confirmed in February. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp. and Embraer

Senior service leaders believe there is growing support among the top ranks of the Pentagon and Congress to accelerate the light attack buy because it aligns “directly” with Defense Secretary James Mattis’ National Defense Strategy. The new policy, which was unveiled in February, calls on the U.S. armed services to find more cost-effective ways to conduct counterterrorism in the Middle East while pivoting to “great-power” conflict. “This is directly in response to the National Defense Strategy that told us to fight violent extremism at lower levels of effort and rely more on allies and partners,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said during a recent event in Washington. “We should not be using an F-22 to destroy a narcotics factory in Afghanistan.” Within the service, support for a light attack aircraft is the strongest it has been since the concept was born in 2007, says Rebecca Grant president of consulting group IRIS Independent Research. “As they look at the innovation they need to do, the logic of a lower-cost light attack platform stands out,” Grant says. And as the Air Force looks to growing threats from Russia and China, “there is even more of a desire to come up with a good, affordable light attack solution so that the Air Force can focus on the urgent high-end fight,” she notes.

Textron’s AT-6 turboprop was one of four aircraft that participated in the U.S. Air Force’s first light attack experiment in 2017 at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Credit: Textron Aviation

Other benefits of a light attack fleet are pilot seasoning and opportunities for experimentation, two important areas of focus for the Air Force right now, Grant says. For the new aircraft, the Air Force most likely will go with either Sierra Nevada/Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano, which the Afghan air force is already using to fight terrorists, or Textron’s AT-6 Wolverine. The service plans to conduct a second experiment with the two aircraft this summer, this time focused on logistics and maintenance support requirements, outstanding weapons and sensor issues, training syllabus validity, networking and future interoperability with partner forces, and other areas not addressed in the first event.

Textron’s AT-6 turboprop was one of four aircraft that participated in the U.S. Air Force’s first light attack experiment in 2017 at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Credit: Textron Aviation

Depending on the acquisition strategy, however, other manufacturers could compete for the work. Textron’s Scorpion and L3/Air Tractor’s AT-802L Longsword participated in the first experiment but were not selected to move on to the second. They could compete again, as could the newly announced “Bronco II,” the U.S. version of the Mwari multimission aircraft from South Africa’s Paramount Group. Analysts agree that buying sooner rather than later is essential, both to maximize affordability and to stay ahead of the threat. The rapid proliferation of advanced anti-aircraft weapons means that nonstealthy, slower-moving aircraft are becoming more vulnerable by the day. “If there is resistance to light attack, the concern is that by the time the planes are fielded, there won’t be any enemies that don’t have at least shoulder-fired weapons,” says Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute. And if speed is key, the most attractive acquisition strategy for the Air Force likely will involve new contracting authorities designed for rapid acquisition, called Other Transaction Authorities (OTA). The advantage of this type of contracting vehicle, which the Air Force used for the first light attack experiment, is that it theoretically allows the service to transition into a follow-on production contract without further competition. But OTAs are a relatively new, untested practice, and using this vehicle for a light attack program could invite bid protests if the Air Force’s case is not airtight. That is one reason the Air Force might opt for a more traditional contracting approach, but that would likely add years to the time line for fielding. The Air Force is not limiting its options, Bunch says. “The challenge I’ve given [the team] is: ‘I’m not going to specify how you do this. I want you to tell me the best option for how to go do it given that . . . I want this as quickly as [possible],” Bunch says. “The sky is the limit.” For now, Wilson says the Air Force has included a $2.5 billion “wedge” in the five-year budget plan as a placeholder for the light attack buy. The number of aircraft the Air Force eventually purchases will depend not just on the concept of operations but also the interest of U.S. allies, according to Wilson. The light attack program “has to be coalition at the core,” with an emphasis on common training and equipment as well as “a network that shares,” she notes. The office of the deputy undersecretary for international affairs has already built an “engagement plan” to gauge international interest in the program, Bunch says. But another important aspect is developing a variant of the aircraft that can be sold abroad, which involves Congress and the U.S. State Department, he says.  “What I don’t want to do is go buy airplanes and have them sitting on the ramp, so we’ve got to sync everything up,” Bunch stresses. “I can’t just flip a switch and go buy the airplanes. We’ve really got to understand the concept of operations.”