SecAF: Don’t Expect Large Budget Increases After 2019; $2.4B Set For Light Attack

SecAF: Don’t Expect Large Budget Increases After 2019; $2.4B Set For Light Attack
SecAF: Don’t Expect Large Budget Increases After 2019; $2.4B Set For Light Attack

The Air Force placed a $2.4 billion placeholder in the 2019 budget to buy Light Attack Aircraft over the next five years, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters this morning.

Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update

Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update
Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update

PENTAGON: It’s always difficult to tell when the military is covering its tuckus and when it’s just being careful. So when the outgoing head of the Air Force press desk, Col. Patrick Ryder, told reporters this afternoon that the service had not made any decision about whether to go ahead with a combat test of…

Light Attack Competition: Air Force, McCain Tout Acquisition Experiment

Light Attack Competition: Air Force, McCain Tout Acquisition Experiment
Light Attack Competition: Air Force, McCain Tout Acquisition Experiment

CORRECTED: TACO GILBERT’S AFFILIATION HOLLOMAN AFB: It may be hard to believe but the future of the Air Force may depend on three turboprop planes and a $20 million spec-built attack jet. They are the entries in what the service calls the Light Attack Experiment, a back-to-the-future attempt to rekindle the sort of innovation and…

McCain’s 300 Low-End Fighters A ‘Great Idea:’ CSAF Gen. Goldfein

McCain’s 300 Low-End Fighters A ‘Great Idea:’ CSAF Gen. Goldfein
McCain’s 300 Low-End Fighters A ‘Great Idea:’ CSAF Gen. Goldfein

WASHINGTON: A key part of Sen. John McCain’s alternative defense budget proposal is the rapid purchase of 300 “low-cost, light-attack fighters that would require minimal work to develop.” I asked Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein today what he thought of McCain’s proposal, contained in Restoring American Power. “Great idea,” he said, pointing…

A-10, Then A-11 And A-12? Air Force Ponders CAS Future

A-10, Then A-11 And A-12? Air Force Ponders CAS Future
A-10, Then A-11 And A-12? Air Force Ponders CAS Future

UPDATED: Adds Ayotte Comment WASHINGTON: The Air Force is considering not one, but two replacements for the aging A-10 Warthog close air support plane. But analysts wonder why, given that the service is already building a new bomber (the B-21), a new tanker (the KC-46), a new fighter (the F-35A), they would want to build two Close…

Beechcraft Protests Light Air Support Award; Kansas Lawmakers On Warpath

WASHINGTON: Wichita Congressman Mike Pompeo and Kansas senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran have written the Pentagon to protest Wichita-based Beechcraft’s loss of the bitterly contested Light Air Support contract, Rep. Pompeo told Breaking Defense this afternoon. Beechcraft, which had offered its AT-6 Texan II aircraft, announced plans earlier today to file a formal protest…

Beechcraft Exits Bankruptcy On Eve Of Air Force’s Light Air Support Pick

[Updated 1:15 pm, Feb. 20] Wichita-based Beechcraft — formerly Hawker Beechcraft — has officially emerged from bankruptcy with a new name, 2,000 fewer employees, $2 billion less debt, and one last shot at a bitterly contested Air Force contract to provide ground attack planes to Afghanistan. The Air Force’s decision on the Light Air Support…

Hawker Beechcraft Chairman Rebuffs Security Concerns Over Sale To Chinese: EXCLUSIVE

The proposed sale of bankrupt Hawker Beechcraft to a Chinese company will create no security problems for the US military, pledged Hawker chairman Bill Boisture in an exclusive interview with Breaking Defense. If the potential $1.8 billion sale to Superior Aviation Beijing actually goes through — and at least one well-regarded industry observer, Richard Aboulafia,…

Tucano Debuts At Airshow Amidst Lawsuit, Chinese Takeover Talk

[UPDATED with comment from outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz] Sierra Nevada Corp. unveiled its Super Tucano to the American public even as its lawsuit proceeds against the American government. The Air Force initially decided to buy 20 of the light attack planes for Afghanistan, then unexpectedly cancelled the Light Air Support…

Hawker Beechcraft Delivers 8,000 LAS Proposal For AT-6 – By Hand

Hawker Beechcraft delivers LAS proposal to USAF – all 8,800 pages of it – by hand to avoid more bureaucratic FUBAR. See http://aol.it/M7IJfr SydneyFreedberg

Super Tucano Supporters In Shock: AF To Pick Tucano Or AT-6 Without Flying Either

The Air Force will choose a winner in its troubled Light Air Support competition without actually flying the two contending planes, the Embraer Super Tucano and the Hawker-Beechcraft AT-6, and it will even disregard what it has data from the limited “flight demonstration” it conducted last year. That’s a disturbing departure from best practice in…

Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 Back In Running Vs. Super Tucano: New LAS RFP Inbound

WASHINGTON [updated Friday 3:30 pm to add details from the Air Force statement and comment from Hawker Beechcraft CEO]: The Texan II is back in the saddle again. Next week, on Tuesday the 17th, the US Air Force will meet with both Hawker Beechcraft, which makes the AT-6 Texan II attack plane, and rival Sierra…

Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 Guns For Embraer’s Super Tucano: Rival Planes Compared

It’s Texan versus Tucano, take two, and the embarrassed Air Force has got to get it right this time. With all the claims, counter-claims, and rumors swirling about the controversial contract to buy the Embraer Super Tucano, which the Air Force cancelled unexpectedly on Tuesday and will likely re-compete, Breaking Defense went both to the…

‘We’ll Work Our Asses Off,’ Air Force Chief Pledges In Wake of Super Tucano Fiasco

‘We’ll Work Our Asses Off,’ Air Force Chief Pledges In Wake of Super Tucano Fiasco
‘We’ll Work Our Asses Off,’ Air Force Chief Pledges In Wake of Super Tucano Fiasco

WASHINGTON: The Air Force leadership is hurting in the wake of another botched acquisition and the continuing Dover Air Force Base burial scandal, and you could see it in the face of Gen. Norton Schwartz this morning. The latest cock-up forced the Air Force to set aside, effective March 2, the $355 million contract for…