Why the Light Attack Aircraft Is So Important to the Air Force

Dan Goure

Security,

Now is the time and the LAA procurement is the right program for the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate that it can be an agile, smart buyer, able to cut years off of its heretofore ponderous acquisition timelines.

Later this month, the U.S. Air Force says that it will release the long-anticipated Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Light Attack Aircraft (LAA). Although it will be a relatively small program in budgetary terms, it could have profound implications for the way the air force supports the new National Defense Strategy, grows its number of combat squadrons, engages with allies and partners, and reforms a cumbersome and expensive acquisition system.

One impetus for the LAA program is the well-established need to provide less costly air support for low-intensity counter-insurgency and counterterrorism operations such as in Afghanistan and eastern Syria. Currently, the U.S. military employs a variety of high-end warplanes to conduct close air support missions in these conflicts, including B-1s, F-15s, F-16s and F-18s, A-10s and MQ-9 Reaper drones. While highly effective, these platforms are expensive to sustain. Their use in low-intensity missions also detracts from the air force’s ability to prepare for the potential threat of high-intensity conflict. Facing a sustainment bow wave in the next five years as existing fighter fleets continue to age and new platforms place additional burdens on the maintenance and supply systems, it is imperative that the air force find ways of lowering its operating costs.

An LAA would enable partner countries to develop effective indigenous close air support capabilities. This would reduce the burden on the U.S. Air Force. Also, it would help create an informal coalition of partner air forces able to engage in exchanges in the counter-insurgency fight and simultaneously share airborne intelligence amongst themselves and with the United States. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein explained part of the rationale for an air force procurement of an LAA thusly:

“‘What I hear over and over again from various air chiefs … who perhaps are not able to get into fourth … or fifth generation aircraft’ is that they want to participate in air campaigns and the light aircraft would allow them to ‘buy into [a] system … that can enhance [the] alignment of effort.’”