USAF to request funding for light-attack aircraft experimentation
Daniel Wasserbly, Washington, DC - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
24 February 2017
The US Air Force (USAF) plans to request a new exercise, to be bankrolled in a fiscal year 2017 (FY 2017) supplemental budget, that will explore potential light-attack aircraft solutions, General David Goldfein, USAF chief of staff, said during 23 February remarks at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
He said such a platform would have to be responsive, expeditionary, and networked into the USAF's wider family of systems.
USAF officials have long considered a concept of fielding less expensive light-attack fighter aircraft for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, in part to preserve higher-end fighters for other roles.
John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in January unveiled a proposal that would dramatically increase national defence spending over the next five years and recommended that the USAF "procure 300 low-cost, light-attack fighters that would require minimal work to develop".
Original post: janes.com
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