USAF rejects Scorpion for
OA-X, names A-29 and AT-6 finalists
02
EBRUARY, 2018 - SOURCE:
FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM - BY: STEPHEN TRIMBLE
WASHINGTON DC
The US Air Force
has excluded the Textron AirLand Scorpion light-attack aircraft from the next
phase of its OA-X experiment, leaving Textron Aviation's Beechcraft AT-6
Wolverine and the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano as the finalists for
a potential follow-on acquisition deal.
The news comes as a blow for
joint venture Textron AirLand’s five-year-old campaign to win the endorsement
of the US Air Force for the company-funded Scorpion, a twinjet designed to
perform as a light-attack and observation platform.
Instead, the turboprop-powered
AT-6 and A-29 are “the two most promising light-attack aircraft”, says
Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson.
“This will let us gather the
data needed for a rapid procurement,” Wilson says.
Textron Aviation declines to
comment on the air force’s rejection of the Scorpion.
The AT-6 and A-29 will
participate in the second phase of the OA-X experiment from May to July at
Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, the USAF says. The second phase was originally
planned as a demonstration in a combat zone, the third in a series of Combat
Dragon events dating back to the Vietnam War.
“Rather than do a combat
demonstration, we have decided to work closely with industry to experiment with
maintenance, data networking and sensors,” Wilson says.
That characterization suggests
an evaluation of the weapons capability of both aircraft is being de-emphasised
in favour of surveillance and communications functions.
“This effort to find a
lower-cost and exportable aircraft for permissive environments is directly in
line with the National Defense Strategy,” says Gen David Goldfein, chief of
staff of the USAF. “A light-attack aircraft would not only provide relief to
our fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft, but also bolster our
interoperability, so we can more effectively employ airpower as an
international team.”
But the air force’s real support
for the light-attack mission is difficult to judge until 12 February, when the
Trump Administration is set to submit the Fiscal 2019 budget request to
Congress. So far, the USAF has budgeted no funding to acquire an OA-X fleet,
but that could change in the first budget request prepared from scratch by the
government elected in 2016.
In 2015, Congress gave the
Department of Defense authority to bypass normal acquisition procedures to make
rapid purchases in certain circumstances, but only after performing a thorough
evaluation of production-ready options. Such authority could allow the air
force to move forward with an OA-X contract award as early as Fiscal 2019, but
only if the programme is funded in next year’s yet-unreleased budget.
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