Senate panel wants to fund Air Force light-attack planes

An upcoming Air Force competition that includes two Wichita-built military planes has taken on more importance following actions by a Senate panel.

The Senate Armed Services Committee earmarked $1.2 billion for the purchase of light-attack/observation aircraft in its version of the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

It’s the first federal action that sets aside funding for the purchase of aircraft to augment the Air Force’s aging fleet of A-10 Warthogs.

It also comes weeks before the Air Force evaluates Textron Aviation Defense’s Scorpion jet and Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine under the OA-X light-attack experiment. The OA-X was conceived before there was funding for the Air Force to buy light-attack airplanes.

Textron’s jet and turboprop will compete in the contest – slated to begin sometime in August at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico – against the A-29 Super Tucano offered by Embraer Defense & Security of Brazil and Sierra Nevada Corp.

That evaluation is part of a new effort by the Air Force to evaluate “off-the-shelf” aircraft that can loiter in the air for long periods and provide close-air support to ground troops.

The aircraft that currently serve that role is the A-10, the first production aircraft of which was delivered to the Air Force in 1975.

Should either Textron plane be selected by the Air Force, it most likely would mean more jobs at one of the city’s largest employers.

Textron’s Scorpion jet has yet to garner any orders. The twin-engine, two-seat jet was quietly developed in Wichita and first flown in December 2013. Textron officials developed the aircraft as a low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to foreign military services. The first production-conforming Scorpion made its first flight in December 2016.

The AT-6 is the attack version of Beechcraft’s T-6 Trainer. More than 900 of the high-performance, single-engine turboprop airplanes have been delivered to Air Force and Navy under the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System program, which ended last June.

The committee’s recommended defense budget still has to be voted on by the full Senate. If passed, it would move to the House, where a final defense budget would be worked out between House and Senate negotiators.

This story was originally published July 3, 2017 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Senate panel wants to fund Air Force light-attack planes."