U.S To Resume Light-Strike Aircraft Competition This Month

The U.S Air Force will resume the light-strike aircraft program after the $355 million contract awarded to a Brazilian based company and its U.S. partner, Sierra Nevada was cancelled earlier this year. The competition, on behalf the Afghan Air Force, is expected to continue later this month. “We will publish a new draft request for proposal on Light Air Support aircraft program,” Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, said during an April 9 speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “Our purpose is to provide the Afghan counterparts with a fixed-wing, close air support platform that they can operate effectively and affordably and reliably”. In December 2011, the Air Force selected the Embraer Super Tucano but the contract was negated to Sierra Nevada in February. “It was regrettable that we had a problem on our documentation on the first source selection,” Schwartz said. “As a result, we responded by discontinuing that phase of the effort and we will begin anew here later this month with the current offers”. The goal of the program is to purchase a fixed-wing, light-strike turboprop for the nascent Afghan air service.