The Iraqi air force in two years will be flying a new fleet of single-engine turboprops as counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft. See the contract solicitation, posted by the US Air Force, here.
The requirement limits the potential bids to companies that have an aircraft that a) is already in wide use and b) is powered by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 engine.
That narrows the bidders to four that Defense Tech can think of: the Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano, the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 Texan, the Korean Aerospace KO-1 Wong Bee and the Pilatus PC-9M.
Not to play favorites, but Defense Tech humbly suggests this means there are only two serious candidates: the AT-6 and EMB-314 -- with the AT-6 gaining a huge advantage from the "Made in America" sticker stamped on the program's marketing literature.
But don't count out the Brazilians with the Super Tucano. Expect the executives in Sao Jose Dos Campos to propose moving the EMB-314 assembly -- or opening a second production line -- to Florida, if they win the contract.
Keep your eye on this program. This could be the first of many such requirements for a dedicated counter-insurgency aircraft fleet to come down the line, both abroad and in the US.
A reader commented on The Dew Line a few weeks ago:
"The T-6 is a trainer, and attempts by Hawker Beechcraft (or whatever it's called this week) to remodel it as an armed platform are not convincing. That's not what it was designed to do.
"Remember, the T-6 is just a Pilatus PC-9 and the original Swiss design is forbidden by law from being armed...anyone with armed PC-9s has made their own, alternative, arrangements. So flying in combat is not in its genes. Attempts by Raytheon to compare the armed T-6 with the F-15 were met with an embarrassed silence at one show I remember, not so long ago.
"The Super Tucano on the other hand was designed to be a combat aircraft from Day 1 – that’s why it makes a lousy trainer because it’s so big and heavy. The Brazilians deploy it into Amazon dirt strips to fight drug smugglers, it has guns (not an “internal gun pod” but two 0.50-cals in the wing), it can carry air-to-air missiles and has a very sophisticated (data linked) cockpit (thank you Elbit). In its class the Super Tucano is probably the aircraft you want to go to war in."
Also, see my colleague John Croft's account of his recent experience flying the AT-6 here on FlightGlobal.com.
I'll just note that an armed variant of the T-6A is flown by the Hellenic Air Force, but lacks internally mounted guns in favor of a 50-cal pod.
-- Stephen Trimble
Camp is completely spot on with the old OV-10 with the turreted 3 barrelled 20mm autocannon. A cheap, efficient, reliable insurgent killing machine. I wonder why they ever got rid of it.
This terribly sticky, expensive counter insurgent war Bush got us in to requires a much simpler type of combat / recon aircraft than our other imagined enemies would - why use $15 Million supersonic jets and $80,000 bombs to killl a couple guys with an AK and an RPG riding in a toyota pickup? I don't want to pay for it anymore.
For a COIN aircraft I would think you want:
Great downward visibility
Really long loiter time
Slow flight speeds
A turreted FLIR
A turreted 20mm cannon
Fuel efficient engines, wings
What you don't need:
single engine in front, low wing blocking your view
high speed / dogfight capability
ANY bombs / missiles / rockets
defense from fighter Jets or AA fire (insurgents don't HAVE any)
The OV-10 with the 2 engines and twin boom tail gives you awesome visibility - the cockpit bulges out so you can see straight down.
A turreted 20mm cannon is one of the best COIN weapons, very accurate, low collateral damage, you can carry like 3000 rounds if it's the only weapon, and loiter above a town all day in a slow turn at 5,000 feet and destroy anything an insurgent is hiding in.
The idea is it is way cheaper than a helicopter, with far better loiter time, but still allows precise and easy shooting at ground targets from above. Why go on low level high speed strafing runs when you can just use a joystick to blast away at dots on your screen? If haven't seen AC-130 spooky video it's hard to imagine how effective turreted guns in a slow airplane is - there's nowhere to hide.
I hope someone out there is listening - we could save billions of dollars a year if we switched many flight operations over to some cheap, slow aircraft with turreted guns.
Posted by: Air Newbie at June 18, 2008 10:51 AM