“And so what's really important to me is what the vendor brings to the table, in terms of their ability to integrate weapons onto a non-developmental platform," said SOCOM acquisition czar Jim Smith.
Gen. Arnold Bunch says that Air Tractor's initial AT-802 offering "did not have ejection seats."
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Contracts are expected by the end of the year for the A-29 and in early 2020 for the AT-6. The Air Force plans to buy "two or three of both," an Air Force spokeswoman said.
Phil Clay, a former Navy test pilot for the Imminent Fury/Combat Dragon close air support experiments, says the Air Force should purchase "at least a wing" (20 planes) of the Light-Attack Aircraft for SOCOM and the so-called foreign internal defense (FID) mission to combat insurgencies.