SOCOM to buy 75 armed overwatch aircraft

SOCOM has announced an industry day as part of a plan to buy 75 aircraft for close air support. This is separate from the Air Force's planned light attack experiment. The aircraft will be used to provide special operations forces with "deployable and sustainable manned aircraft systems" to provide close air support, precision strike, and ISR in permissive environments.

A draft OTA is scheduled to be released Feb 14th. It is expected to be an indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity, with a five year order period, with a two year option. The expected quantity is 75 aircraft.

www.airforcemag.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

A-1E Sky Raider was an awesome aircraft back in its day. Could carry enough to get the job done. I wonder if any of these newer aircraft can even come close youtu.be... youtu.be...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Some called for legislation to give procurement authority to SOCOM if the Air Force doesn’t buy a fleet of the aircraft.

My impression is that the Air Force isn't really into light attack aircraft, given the way they've been dragging their feet. And if SOCOM needs this capability they should have a way to get it.

originally posted by: moebius
a reply to: Zaphod58

Some called for legislation to give procurement authority to SOCOM if the Air Force doesn’t buy a fleet of the aircraft.

My impression is that the Air Force isn't really into light attack aircraft, given the way they've been dragging their feet. And if SOCOM needs this capability they should have a way to get it.

ever since the air force was given the task of being the air force, as in in charge of almost all aircraft for the military other than the Navy, they have been far more concerned with their favorite pet programs such as heavy bombers, fast jets and missiles. they never have cared a fig about things like usable light attack aircraft that is usable for close contact in support of troops. and to be honest that type of thinking even goes back to the army air core before the air force. close contact air support was more a thing that the Marines were wanting and doing with their aircraft. to support their fellow marines slogging it out on the ground. the army air core was more concerned even in ww2 about attacking targets they wanted to hit, not working to actively support the troops.

Buy them and give them to the Marines. OV-10's would be perfect and the Marines are used to operating them.

a reply to: JIMC5499

We had OV-10s based in Hawaii when we got back there. Neat little birds. SOCOM has used them a few times as an "experiment" in the Middle East.

a reply to: Zaphod58

the OV-10 is what the Philippine forces were using against the muslim terrorists in Marawi. and it seems they were given them from the US.

a reply to: generik

VAL-4 The Black Ponies


en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: 727Sky
a reply to: Zaphod58

A-1E Sky Raider was an awesome aircraft back in its day. Could carry enough to get the job done. I wonder if any of these newer aircraft can even come close youtu.be... youtu.be...

That was my ride in (over)Vietnam. We could carry 500 and 250 lb bombs, napalm, rockets, cluters, and in one infamous case, a kitchen sink. And we could hang around for hours waiting for a call. The 602nd Special Operations Squadron was a search and rescue and close air support squadron based in Northeastern Thailand. It is simpler to start the 747 I fly now than to get the Wright R-3350 going. And if the Industrial Revolution had a signiture sound, it would be the 3350 starting. And when they moved us into F-4s, I wanted my Skyraider back.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Canadian geese with hellfires would be something to see

Surely the mighty USA would not go back to these proven old aircraft?

They would have to design some fantastical new contraption to perform this role?

originally posted by: Forensick
Surely the mighty USA would not go back to these proven old aircraft?

They would have to design some fantastical new contraption to perform this role?

Just have them stick an Allison T-56 on the nose of the A1E and it would be better than any newfangled thing they would come up with and for very little money. Proven airframe, proven engine, more bombload and 7 more hardpoints than an A-10, decent unprepared and short field performance and reasonably simple to maintain. And you have actual pushrods and cables to control it, and not just electrons. Actually, since control cables aew stranded, twisted stainless steel wires, it is sort of a fly-by-wire aircraft.

originally posted by: Forensick
Surely the mighty USA would not go back to these proven old aircraft?

They would have to design some fantastical new contraption to perform this role?

of course. first off it has to be stealth. stealth is the name of the game these days. if it's not stealth, it's not worthy of being a modern military aircraft. and forget about having actual control wires, without a fancy electronics system to help fly the aircraft. it has to be high tech, so that they can justify spending millions of dollars on each aircraft. it would also be extremely helpful if it was either controlled by AI, or remotely flown by a person on the ground. that would justify even more expense, while using the reasoning of keeping pilots alive. even though a live actual pilot on the scene has a far better situational awareness than any pilot miles away using cameras to "see".

An OV-10X would be a nice COIN aircraft, but Ill bet it will be one of the previous finalists AT-6B or the A-29

Whilst I was being very tongue in cheek and sarcastic with my last post, I cant help think there is a better multirole CAS, COIN whatever design out there.

Without going all graphene, plasma type bs, if you are not going to go A-10 armor and dual engines, cables and pulleys and a single engine dont have much redundancy if a stray 7.6mm hits the tub.

I thought this was the realm of the F-35b?

www.janes.com...

a reply to: anzha


I can tell you this is not SOCOM's preferred solution... Lol

Operator lag in Satellite relays still a thing?Survivability is the key.The A10 was built to defend against the Russian T72 hoards..Up armour a training aircraft,add redundancies and advance its sensor suit.Plus add more missiles..Can never go wrong with more missiles...Unless you have quick recharge Pew Pews..

a reply to: Blackfinger

Won't happen. Needs to take place at 10-15k feet minimum, and the small training aircraft can't cut it there.

And yes, operator-lag and bandwidth are still ongoing concerns. Reapers and co have an very high mishap rate, and a pretty large logistics footprint (not just for the airframes, but for the support of the mission stations).