Boeing has decided not to participate in the U.S. Air Force’s light-attack flight demonstration, a company spokeswoman says.
Boeing’s decision to opt out of the initial phase of the Air Force’s “OA-X” effort could leave the company at a disadvantage should the service ultimately decide to move forward with a plan to buy 300 low-cost, light attack aircraft for counterterrorism operations.
Boeing chose not to participate in this early stage of OA-X because the company does not “see a viable path forward for this phase,” spokeswoman Caroline Hutcheson told Aviation Week. The demonstration is planned to take place this summer at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Proposals are due to the Air Force on April 7.
Hutcheson did not rule out Boeing participating in OA-X at a later date.
The move comes as a bit of a surprise, as Boeing has several off-the-shelf designs that would fit the OA-X bill. In 2009, Boeing put together internal plans to build a modernized version of North American Aviation’s OV-10 Bronco observation aircraft for a possible light-attack program that was later scrapped.
History shows the Air Force would be open to an OV-10X. The service evaluated two OV-10s as part of the 2013 Combat Dragon II program, aimed at demonstrating that a small turboprop can be effective at counterterrorism missions.
Boeing could also offer an attack variant of its next-generation T-X, which it is co-developing with Saab as an option for the Air Force to replace its legacy T-38 pilot trainers.
Less well known is Boeing’s collaboration with the South Africa-based Paramount Group on a new reconnaissance and light attack aircraft known as Mwari. Boeing is developing an integrated mission system for the aircraft, enabling it to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and light strike missions. Mwari is a high-wing, twin-boom aircraft powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66B turboprop engine and pusher propeller. The wings accommodate six hard points for external stores and weapons; the fuselage contains a 20mm cannon.
The Holloman demonstration will inform the Air Force’s decision on whether or not to procure a light-attack fleet to help fight violent extremists in the Middle East and could potentially serve to alleviate the service’s growing pilot shortage. But the Air Force has stressed that right now the effort is in the experimentation phase, and no program of record has been initiated. The assessment at Holloman could lead to another experiment, a combat demonstration, or even an immediate acquisition program, said Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the Air Force’s military acquisition deputy.
The Air Force is looking to choose up to four respondents to bring just one or two non-developmental aircraft to Holloman for a four- to six-week capability assessment. Air Force aircrew will fly the selected aircraft to assess its basic aerodynamic performance as well as its weapons, sensor, communications and austere field operations capabilities.
The aircraft selected must be able to perform light attack and armed reconnaissance and operate from austere locations, according to a list of notional requirements.
Qualifying aircraft need to be able to support a high operations tempo of 900 flight hours per year for 10 years and have a 90% mission capable rate for day and night missions. The aircraft must be able to take off using a maximum runway length of 6,000 ft. and be equipped with secure tactical communications and the ability to hit stationary or moving targets day and night. In addition, qualifying jets must have a 2.5-hr. mission endurance with an average fuel flow of about 1,500 lb./hr. or less. The aircraft will also be evaluated for survivability, including infrared and visual signature.
The most obvious front-runners are Embraer/Sierra Nevada’s A-29 Super Tucano, Textron/Beechcraft’s AT-6, and Textron’s Scorpion.
