How did I miss this? USAF selects Scorpion and A6 for light attack demo

www.defensenews.com...

I am sort of cheering for the Scorpion, it seems to have much more capability at a still more than reasonable cost. Plus looking at the airframe and its modular buildout it would have vastly superior upgrade potential.

a reply to: Fools

AT-6 not A-6. It ended up with the AT-802U as well. Most of the leadership was far more impressed than they expected to be. Next up will be a combat deployment with at least two of them.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So they went ahead and let the tractor in. That seems like such a small aircraft, I suppose it has more power than I would suspect though. I do remember seeing somewhere that it is already used by some smaller air forces around the world.

Do you know when the combat fly off is scheduled?

a reply to: Fools

They haven't settled on details yet. They're still figuring out the budget. Initial reports were that the A-29 and AT-6 would deploy with four aircraft, and 80 personnel, but they've kind of walked that back.

a reply to: Zaphod58

A-29? I thought that was already settled due to USA only issues.

a reply to: Fools

The A-29s purchased to date were for the Afghan Air Force. The A-29 used in this program are for the US.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The article states AT6 and Scorpian. It doesn't mention the Brazillian aircraft. Is the article incorrect?

a reply to: Fools

Uhm.....first line of the article....

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.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Sorry, I missed that. No excuse. Just missed it somehow.

FTA:

"I think the Scorpion has some capabilities with the sensors that it can carry to tackle that kind of a mission that may be a little more difficult for an AT-6," Bill Harris, Textron AirLand’s vice president of Scorpion sales, said then.

Plus the front is pointier and it's a jet. How hard is it going to be for the AF evaluators to ignore those points?

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hey Zaph, long time no chat!

This is probably a stupid question but, how the heck does that Beechcraft prop plane stack up against a jet like the Scorpion?

a reply to: Cohen the Barbarian

I am not sure that the fact it has a jet engine is all that important in this fly off. It's not like the scorpion is all that fast, or big.

I looked briefly over the stats and even though the scorpion is slightly faster, its loiter time is a bit less. I do believe that it appeared it could carry more weapons though.

a reply to: Fools

My question would be the maintenance. These are for low threat environments and going a bit slower may not be a bad thing in the role.

If the prop plane is cheaper/easier to maintain... I could see that working in it's favor.

~Winter

I thought the AT-6 designation for a variant of the Texan, an older prop plane. How are they able to reuse the AT-6 designation?

a reply to: Winterpain

I do not know anything near what other posters know on this forum about aircraft - especially maintenance. But if I buy what the articles are selling, this modular components thing is a big deal when it comes to maintenance. It supposedly makes everything go quicker. Not sure if all contenders have the same, only saw it mentioned while reading about the scorpion.

Call me crazy but I like the way the A-29 front lines resemble the old Ju-87's.

I guess the same mission, same requirements will produce a similar aircraft.

originally posted by: StratosFear
I thought the AT-6 designation for a variant of the Texan, an older prop plane. How are they able to reuse the AT-6 designation?

A-29 existed as well:

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: ABNARTY

I agree it looks similar. Maybe it has air horn sirens as well..

a reply to: StratosFear

Because it's the AT-6 Texan II. It was designated under the 1962 Tri-Service aircraft designation system, that reset the designation system.

a reply to: parad0x122

Quite well actually. They're both light attack craft, so they have similar payloads (don't have the numbers off the top of my head and too lazy right now to look them up). Scorpion gets there faster, but a turboprop, depending on the range to the target, can loiter longer, because it doesn't burn as much fuel.