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The US Air Force has kicked off the procurement for another round of wing replacements for A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, known affectionately by many as the Warthog. With new wings, the A-10s will help fill a gap left by the delayed volume delivery of F-35A fighters, which were intended to take over the A-10's close air support (CAS) role in "contested environments"—places where enemy aircraft or modern air defenses would pose a threat to supporting aircraft. For now, the A-10 is being used largely in uncontested environments, where the greatest danger pilots face is small arms fire or possibly a Stinger-like man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) missile. But the Warthog is also being deployed to Eastern Europe as part of the NATO show of strength in response to Russia.
While the A-10 will keep flying through 2025 under current plans, Air Force leadership has perceived (or was perhaps convinced to see) a need for an aircraft that could take over the A-10's role in low-intensity and uncontested environments—something relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain that could be flown from relatively unimproved airfields to conduct armed reconnaissance, interdiction, and close air support missions. The replacement would also double as advanced trainer aircraft for performing weapons qualifications and keeping pilots' flight-time numbers up.
So, last year the Air Force kicked off the Light Attack Experiment (OA-X), a four-aircraft competition to determine what would best fit that bill.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday June 20 2018, @09:12AM (2 children)
Also, look at what they're considering: "AirTractor and L3's AT-802L Longsword; Sierra Nevada and Embraer's A-29 Super Tucano; and Textron and AirLand LLC's Beechcraft AT-6B Wolverine". Holy fsck, a cropduster, an actual military aircraft sourced from Brazil, and a basic trainer. Is this actually the USAF or the Fijian Air Force that's being discussed here when the term "Air Force" is used?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:59PM (1 child)
I definitely hear what you're saying, but it's worth noting that even the human-readable simplified spec that made it into the summary for this competition focuses on robustness and ability to fly from relatively unimproved airstrips. I bet they aren't offering contracts with 10 figures attached for this, either.
We really don't have those as serious design considerations for our supposed pork vendors ... er I mean aerospace design/manufacture contractors here in the USA. It's not sexy to make something dead simple that just works, nor is it necessarily super profitable versus something that barely works but has loads of supposed cutting-edge tech on board (F35).
So I'm not shocked to see a bunch of these options being based on proven airframes from either 2nd-world countries or workhorses like trainers or cropdusters.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday June 20 2018, @07:00PM
The wiki link I posted above says that there are only two contenders left.
Both are probably faster than the A10. ;-)
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.