Fórum Defesa Brasil

Afghan air force must adapt post-ISAF, Hammond says
By: Craig Hoyle London

Ending the combat involvement of nations including the UK and the USA in Afghanistan's fight against the Taliban will require the nation to use the limited resources available to it, despite questions currently facing two of its key equipment areas.

"On air support, including rotary, there is a plan to provide basic air capability to the Afghans through the Afghan air force," UK defence secretary Philip Hammond told a House of Commons Defence Committee hearing on 23 January.

"But it would be nothing like the level of air capability that the ISAF [NATO-led International Security Assistance Force] forces have. That will require them to adapt their method of operations to the level of enablers that are available for them."

Hammond gave evidence to the committee days after discussing Afghanistan's nascent defence capabilities during a 19 January meeting with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in London.

The US Air Force could withdraw funding support for Afghan air force C-27A transports

Flightglobal's World Air Forces directory for 2013 lists Kabul's armed forces as having a combined 98 aircraft in active use at the end of 2012, with this total including a combined 31 Alenia Aermacchi C-27A (G222) and Cessna 208 Caravan fixed-wing transports. Rotorcraft operated by the Afghan National Army Air Corps include 67 Bell UH-1H and Mil Mi-8/17-series transports, plus Mi-35 assault helicopters and MD530 trainers.

Recent reports suggest the US Air Force may terminate a deal to support Afghanistan's refurbished C-27As from later this year, with Washington believed to be promoting the introduction of second-hand Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules to equip the Afghan National Security Forces instead.

The USAF has also slipped a decision to select a planned fleet of 20 light air support aircraft for the Afghan air force by several months from January 2013. This leaves little prospect for either the rival Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 or Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano to be in even limited use before coalition forces halt combat activities before the end of 2014.

Afghanistan's new generation of military pilots have so far participated in a largely non-combat role in the country, flying missions accompanied by other ISAF aircraft. NATO has previously spoken of the nation's air force as being able to offer an operationally independent capability only after 2017

France and COIN Air Operations in Mali
(Source: defense-aerospace.com; published Feb. 7, 2013)
By Gerardo Gonzalez

PARIS --- History shows that military interventions have many unintended consequences. One of them is the heavy weaponry acquired by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghred (AQIM) after the overthrow of the late Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Now Mali has become the first casualty of Libya’s revolution, and the vast, desolated region of the Sahara of which it is part of has become the latest battle ground against Islamic extremism.

In a surprise move that took many off guard, including AQIM, France intervened at the request of the Malian government by air and land against the insurgents.

French counter-insurgency (COIN) operations in Mali are supported by two key factors: 1) Intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is being carried out by drones including the Harfang, an Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) derivative and by fixed-wing aircraft such as the Mirage F-1CR, US Predator UAVs and the Royal Air Force’s Sentinel surveillance aircraft.
2) Bombing and close air support (CAS) are being carried out by fixed wing aircraft such as Rafale, Mirage 2000D and attack helicopters like the Gazelle and Tiger.

French air force COIN operations in Mali would be better served by the deployment of a robust, cost-effective, easy to maintain and heavily armed platform. The A-29B Super Tucano, for instance, is capable of flying at altitudes up to 30,000 ft., with a range up to 900 nautical miles (making self-deployment from France to Mali feasible, if not comfortable) and it is competently able to perform six-hour missions. The aircraft can be fitted with extra fuel tanks, multi-function display (MFD) and head up display (HUD) fully compatible with night vision goggles (NVG).

The Super Tucano can also be able to perform a numerous of missions such as providing streaming video, forward air control, escort missions, CAS and ISR. It is also capable of using a wide-range of equipment such as electro-optical, infrared and laser sensors, and it can be armed with guided and unguided rockets, wing-mounted 12.7mm machine guns, Brimstone anti-armour missiles, Mistral air-to-air missiles and guided bombs including AASM “Hammer” 125/250. There is almost no weapon being used by France against AQIM in Mali that can’t be carried by the Super Tucano.

Nor is the Super Tucano alone in its category. Its main competitor for the US-funded Light Air Support (LAS) competition, originally intended to provide 100 armed turboprop aircraft to the Afghanistan Air Corps, is the broadly similar Beechcraft AT 6, derived from the US Navy’s T-6A Texan II training aircraft.

Now upgraded with a more powerful 1600 shp Pratt and Whitney PT6A-68D engine, the AT-6 is a structurally strengthened derivative of the T-6 trainer. Adding to the FAA approved primary flight avionics system by CMC Esterline, Lockheed Martin leveraged A-10C precision engagement modification capabilities in integrating the mission avionics of the AT-6. The result is a plug-and-play mission system architecture that combines state-of-the-art data link, combat communications capabilities, extensive variety of weapons delivery modes and precision weapons tailored for the AT-6.

Employment concepts for both of these light attack aircraft draw heavily on US experiences in Viet Nam, where Douglas AH-1 Skyraiders, T-28 Trojan piston-engined trainers and North American OV-10 Bronco aircraft were used, modified and designed to provide low-technology, low cost and high-accuracy close air support to ground troops.

In fact, the Super Tucano and AT-6 very closely resemble the Cavalier Mustang concept, a turbine-powered light fighter derived in the 1960s from the World War 2 vintage P-51 Mustang fighter, and specifically intended for COIN operations.

One of their major advantages of aircraft like the Super Tucano and AT-6 is their low operating costs, another habitual hurdle for COIN operations. For instance, the Rafale costs roughly $17,000 per flight hour; and the Mirage 2000 5MK2 about $5,000.

Paying more to drop bombs makes absolutely no sense. There is simply no plane that can match the light attack aircraft’s capabilities of mission flexibility, air-to-ground weapons variety, and low operating cost of about $1,000 per flight hour for the Super Tucano.

Currently the Armée de l'Air doesn’t fly any Super Tucanos, but Mali’s neighbors Burkina Faso and Mauritania recently acquired six of them. France can lease one of them (or lease it from Brazil) and run an evaluation program similar to the U.S. Navy Imminent Fury destined to develop COIN/CAS/ISR platform for special operations personnel. The Super Tucano capably exceeded the requirements in Imminent Fury, but the purchase got entangled in U.S. politics, much like the air force’s LAS program.

Aircraft like the Super Tucano and AT-6 are relatively fast, cost-effective, easy to maintain and heavily armed platforms that are capable of working closely with special operations forces. They are the supreme combination for low-intensity conflicts, even in limited numbers.

Mali is yet another proving ground where airplanes of this category can prove to western air forces that they are in fact worthy offensive platforms, combining high firepower with low acquisition and operating costs.

WEAPONIZING THE SUPER TUCANO: EVOLVING THE CAPABILITIES OF THE LIGHT ATTACK AIRCRAFT
By Ed Timperlake (13/02/2013)

Last summer Embraer and Boeing announced a teaming agreement to integrate GPS guided munitions on Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano.

The program would start with the JDAM and eventually include the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB).

The Super Tucano has already demonstrated it’s ability to deliver laser-guided munitions in combat operations in Colombia which makes this a relatively low risk initiative for Boeing.

Integrating GPS guided munitions with the Super Tucano is also an “objective requirement” for the US Air Force’s Light Air Support (LAS) program, the winner of which should be announced later this month.

Boeing sees the Super Tucano as a means of marketing advanced weapons to a larger set of customers, especially with INS/Laser-guided versions of the Small Diameter Bomb currently in development, which is a testimony to the maturity, lower-risk, and growth capability of the A-29 over other light attack aircraft.

Boeing announced JDAM capabilities and it should be noted also as an industry partnership.

According to the Boeing:

Known as the “Warfighter’s Weapon of Choice,” the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a low-cost guidance kit produced by Boeing that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurately guided, near-precision “smart” weapons. The JDAM kit consists of a tail section that contains a Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System and body strakes for additional stability and lift.

Currently, MK-84 2,000-pound and BLU-109 2,000-pound (900-kg) bombs (GBU-31); MK-83 bombs (GBU-32); and MK-82 500-pound (225-kg) bombs (GBU-38) are in production to make the cost-effective JDAM. When employed, these weapons have proven highly accurate and can be delivered in any flyable weather. JDAM can be launched from more than 15 miles from the target with updates from GPS satellites to help guide the weapon to the target.

The JDAM production team includes Honeywell Inc. (inertial measurement unit); Rockwell Collins (global positioning system receiver); HR Textron (tail actuator subsystem); Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems (mission computer); Lockely (tail fairing); Enser and Eagle-Picher (battery); and Stremel (strakes and cable cover).

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/missiles/jdam/

Concurrently integrating the Small Diameter Bomb into the A-29 will bring significant capability to many allied nations in addition to the Afghan Air Forces.

It is a key munition for increased accuracy in the destruction of both hard and soft targets which is built in a relatively affordable package.

The A-29 as SNC/Embraer is “Built for the Mission.”

Their LAS competitor provided a limited airframe at it’s service life end game of capability improvements. The Hawker Beech AT-6 derivative of the T-6 trainer is not as capable nor as survivable and consequently a much higher risk.

This was evident when the terms of a competitive fly-off between the A-29 and AT-6 were inexplicably changed because of T-6 Ordnance/ Airframe limitations.

According to an Inside the Air Force story from July 30, 2010:

Afghan Light-Attack Plane Competition To Culminate With Major Flyoff: Few changes in updated requirements

One important change is that the “standard LAS combat mission” calls for the aircraft to strafe an enemy target with its .50-caliber machine guns while carrying two 500-pound GBU-12 bombs.

In the previous requirements document, the standard mission called for releasing one of the two GBU-12s, then strafing.

The change is critical because performing a strafing mission with two large bombs – which weigh more than 1,200 pounds when guidance systems are factored in – puts a great amount of stress on a small airframe, according to defense observers.

The aircraft would need adequate power to pull up while carrying the extra bomb during a strafing run.

And another source raised questions about the importance of the air frame to perform the kind of mission for which the Super Tucano is being combat enhanced by the Boeing team’s weapons.

The Association of Old Crows (AOC) sponsored a symposium in Arlington in May 2011 on the AT-6, and the laws of physics were made in a very direct way:

No RWR (Radar Warning Receiver) installed;
Significant weight and balance (CG) and overall weight challenges associated with MWS (Missile warning System) installation;
Aircraft is tail heavy; ballast had to be installed forward to re-align CG;
Ballast detracts from overall aircraft payload.
The Boeing partnership on the evolving weapon’s capabilities for the Super Tucano is a clear statement about the viability of the ST as a key light attack aircraft.

I am sure the FARC would agree.

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

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: February 19, 2013

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 program may come as early as this week.

Today's announcement puts a nail in the coffin of Sinophobic speculation that Beechcraft would sell out to Beijing. The Kansas-based aircraft manufacturer did accept a $50 million "non-refundable deposit" from a Chinese firm, Superior Aviation Beijing, that was interested in acquiring it. But concerns over Superior's business bona fides and the security of Beechcraft's defense programs ultimately scotched the deal.

So the reorganized Beechcraft will remain an American company -- albeit with a major facility in Chihuahua, Mexico. It will continue building T-6 military trainers for the Navy, although the Air Force has finished its T-6 buy. And it will still build "King Air" civil aircraft that are sometimes converted for the armed forces. What it will shed, along with the Hawker name, is its money-hemorrhaging line of business jets, a sector savaged by the recession.

Beechcraft's exit from Chapter 11, approved by the court on Feb. 1st, formally went into effect this past Friday, although it was only announced today. This coming Friday, the 22nd, the Air Force is expected to announce its (hopefully) final decision on the Light Air Support contract, a $355-plus million program to equip the fledgling Afghan Air Force with low-cost, low-tech, easy-to-operate propeller planes to strafe the Taliban once US jets withdraw.

The Air Force had originally awarded LAS to Sierra Nevada Corporation's Super Tucano, designed by the Brazilian firm Embraer. But Hawker Beechcraft launched a highly politicized campaign decrying its rival as un-American -- even though SNC insisted all planes for the Air Force would be built in the US -- and filed suit alleging that its AT-6 Texan II attack plane, a modified T-6, had been unfairly disqualified. So, this time last year, the Air Force took the extraordinary and deeply embarrassing step of canceling the award and recompeting the entire program.

"We have worked very hard over the last several months to position ourselves for the LAS contract," Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture told AOL Defense yesterday. (Boisture, who was also chairman of the old Hawker Beechcraft, will remain on the reorganized board, but the new chairman is Robert Johnson). "The customer [i.e. the Air Force] can look at the company now and understand it has the financial stability and strength to execute on any contract awarded. And the stability of the company and its outlook for the future allows continued investment in variations of both the trainer and the attack airplane."

That's a crucial point of which to convince the Air Force. While the aircraft's technical performance is the top criterion for the award, the manufacturer's ability to deliver reliably is criterion No. 2, actually counting for more in determining the winner than does price.

What's the business bottom line? It's hard to say, because the LAS deal is an open-ended contract -- what the government calls IDIQ, "indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery" -- that could yield far more than the baseline 20-plane, $355 million deal. But that depends on how warm US-Afghan relations remain after the American withdrawal. In particular, since Afghanistan can hardly scrape up the funding for an air force on its own, the key factor is whether Congress keeps voting for aid or just gives up on Kabul in disgust, as it did with Saigon in 1975.

From Beechcraft's narrower perspective, that means the AT-6 attack plane is not going to carry the firm's future on its wings, even if the Air Force does award them the LAS contract. But the US military will soon finish buying new T-6 trainers, while the Afghan drawdown guts the demand for modified King Airs to do intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

So, Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia told AOL Defense, "that means they're dependent on a civil prop comeback (which may happen) and on the T-6 trainer surviving as an export-only program (dubious)."

In other words, Beechcraft may be out of bankruptcy, but it's hardly out of the woods.

Air Force light air support contract now expected next week
An Air Force decision on who will be awarded a light air support contract is now expected sometime next week, Beechcraft spokeswoman Nicole Alexander said.

The company had expected a decision on Friday, but has been told there has been a slight delay.

The contract for 20 aircraft for the Afghan air force is expected to total about $350 million.

There are two bidders. Wichita-based Beechcraft Corp., formerly Hawker Beechcraft, has proposed its AT-6 attack aircraft, a version of its T-6 trainer, for the project. Sierra Nevada Corp., meanwhile, has partnered with Brazil-based Embraer to offer its Super Tucano.

The planes are to provide the Afghan National Army Air Corp. with a fixed-wing strike capability. They are to be delivered over five years.

The effort to secure a contract has taken nearly three years and has been fraught with delays and legal challenges.

BrasilPotência escreveu:Só sei que se for ST aumentam exponencialmente as chances da Boeing vender SH.

dafranca escreveu:

Air Force light air support contract now expected next week
An Air Force decision on who will be awarded a light air support contract is now expected sometime next week, Beechcraft spokeswoman Nicole Alexander said.

The company had expected a decision on Friday, but has been told there has been a slight delay.

The contract for 20 aircraft for the Afghan air force is expected to total about $350 million.

There are two bidders. Wichita-based Beechcraft Corp., formerly Hawker Beechcraft, has proposed its AT-6 attack aircraft, a version of its T-6 trainer, for the project. Sierra Nevada Corp., meanwhile, has partnered with Brazil-based Embraer to offer its Super Tucano.

The planes are to provide the Afghan National Army Air Corp. with a fixed-wing strike capability. They are to be delivered over five years.

The effort to secure a contract has taken nearly three years and has been fraught with delays and legal challenges.

http://blogs.kansas.com/aviation/2013/0 ... next-week/

Principal jornal de Kansas, o estado natal da Beechecraft, também diz que o resultado da LAS deveria ter saído hoje, mas sairá semana que vem.

Façam suas apostas!

Lord Nauta escreveu:

BrasilPotência escreveu:Só sei que se for ST aumentam exponencialmente as chances da Boeing vender SH.

Em minha opinião já seria o momento da FAB colocar a encomenda de mais um lote de A-29, cerca de 40/50 aeronaves junto a EMBRAER. Estes exemplares reporiam as perdas, aeronaves que foram destinadas ao EDA e também seriam utilizados para constituição de mais uma unidade para atuar na fronteira.

Sds


Lord Nauta

avc1 escreveu:Embraer vence disputa para fornecer 20 aviões para Força Aérea dos EUA


A Embraer (EMBR3) venceu a norte-americana Beechcraft em uma disputa para fornecer 20 aviões leves de apoio para a Força Aérea dos Estados Unidos, que serão utilizados por militares do Afeganistão para treinamento e contra-insurgência.

A Embraer e sua parceira norte-americana, Sierra Nevada, ganharam o negócio de US$ 427,5 milhões, anunciou o Pentágono nesta quarta-feira (27).

As duas empresas ganharam um contrato de US$ 355 milhões inicial em dezembro de 2011, mas o negócio foi desfeito depois de ser questionado pela Beechcraft, então conhecida como Hawker Beechcraft.

Entenda o impasse

No fim de 2011, a Força Aérea dos Estados Unidos definiu que a Sierra Nevada e a Embraer tinham ganhado o contrato para venda de 20 aviões Super Tucano A-29, assim como treinamento e suporte. De acordo com a licitação, as aeronaves da Embraer seriam fornecidas em parceria com a norte-americana Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) e seriam utilizadas para treinamento avançado em voo, reconhecimento e operações de apoio aéreo no Afeganistão.

Entretanto, a licitação foi paralisada em janeiro, quando a Hawker Beechcraft entrou na Justiça questionando a decisão.

Na época, a Força Aérea norte-americana disse que a seleção tinha sido justa e transparente.

"A concorrência e a avaliação de seleção foram justas, abertas e transparentes. A Força Aérea está confiante nos méritos de sua decisão de concessão do contrato e espera que o litígio seja rapidamente resolvido", divulgou, na época, em nota John Dorrian, porta-voz da Força Aérea norte-americana.

Porém, em meados de fevereiro de 2012, a Força Aérea informou ter cancelado o contrato, citando problemas com a documentação.

(Com Reuters)

Lirolfuti escreveu:Hola Super Hornet