Textron Begins a Limited Production Run of Scorpion Jet, But No Contract
Yet
WASHINGTON - Textron AirLand has begun a limited
production run of its Scorpion jet in advance of a first flight later this year,
its chief executive officer announced Thursday.
Textron has yet to land
a first customer for the aircraft, the internally-funded clean-sheet design the
company has been promoting in international markets since its 2013 debut. But
Textron wants to take advantage of growing interest in the aircraft, likely
caused by recent successful weapons tests and an agreement with the Air Force to
assess the airworthiness of the platform, said Scott Donnelly, the company's
chairman and chief executive officer.
"Given the level of activity,
we've gone ahead and sort of pulled the trigger on initiating a small production
build to help validate our manufacturing processes," he said in an Oct. 20
earnings call.
Textron developed Scorpion as a high-performing but
inexpensive ISR and strike asset, costing $20 million to acquire and clocking in
at $3,000 per flight hour, according to the company. Donnelly did not specify
how many Scorpion jets would be produced in the initial production batch or
where they would be built, but the company had previously built two planes at
its facility in Wichita, Kansas. Only the first aircraft has flown so far, but
that one is not considered production representative.
"We have a lot of
customer conversations going on right now. We think there's a number of
opportunities to demonstrate this aircraft," Donnelly said. "We have a lot of
customers that want to fly the aircraft, and that's really what led us to want
to accelerate both the expense side as well to ... initiate a limited rate of
production. Because we need to have these assets available for customer
demonstrations, customer flights and hopefully, eventually, customer sales."
Producing a limited batch of aircraft will also help validate the
company's manufacturing processes and support Air Force requirements as the
service assesses the jet, he said.
The service in July announced it had
signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Textron to
conduct an airworthiness assessment at the company's expense. The goal of the
review is to make it easier for US defense contractors to internationally sell
military aircraft that are not planned for procurement by the US services.
Donnelly noted that he had seen an uptick in customer interest since the
agreement was announced.
"I think as we've established this CRADA with
the Air Force and now have a path to certification, the level of activity with
customers has stepped up considerably," he said. "It's the right time for us to
step up and demonstrate this aircraft and its performance capability and get
much more aggressive about the marketing and test flights."
While there
is no firm date for the aircraft to complete its airworthiness assessment,
Donnelly said Textron personnel are working with officials at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base to finalize detailed test plans and review data.
Meanwhile, the company has also conducted weapons testing of the jet in
preparation for the first flight of a production-conforming jet, which Donnelly
said will occur "very soon."
The Scorpion recently completed its first
weapons demonstration at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, a company
statement said. During the event, an airborne laser on the Scorpion's L-3
WESCAM's MX-15Di sensor suite guided Hydra-70 unguided 2.75-inch rockets, BAE
Systems' Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) and AGM-114F Hellfire
missiles to their targets.
The acceleration of Scorpion testing and
production - which resulted in higher expenses than had originally been planned
for in this stage of the program - has led to some pressure on earnings,
Donnelly conceded.
"This is certainly not, still, a sure bet," but
Textron would not take the financial risk if it wasn't seeing strong interest
from customers that indicated the time was right to start production and more
aggressively pursue marketing and test flying the aircraft, he said.
One
potential path to a future contract is the UK's Air Support to Defence
Operational Training program, Bill Anderson, president of Textron AirLand, told
Defense News this July. This summer, Thales and QinetiQ selected Textron's
Scorpion as the aircraft in its proposed offering for the contract. According to
a QinetiQ news release, the Scorpion was chosen for its high performance,
reliability and low acquisition costs.
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