{"id":61715,"date":"2017-09-05T16:07:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T16:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/05\/air-force-completes-first-round-of-light-attack-aircraft-demo\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:33:14","slug":"air-force-completes-first-round-of-light-attack-aircraft-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2017\/09\/05\/air-force-completes-first-round-of-light-attack-aircraft-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force completes first round of light attack aircraft demo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s light attack experiment is officially over as of Aug. 30, but it will be months before the service makes a decision on whether to hold a combat demonstration, its top civilian said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Defense News and its sister publication Air Force Times in an exclusive interview, U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the service had concluded test flights at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, and plans to complete reports on the cost and performance of each aircraft by the end of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The light attack demo, which started late July, included the A-29 Super Tucano offered by Sierra Nevada Corp. and Embraer, the AT-802L Longsword from L3 Technologies and Air Tractor and the Scorpion jet and AT-6 Wolverine turboprop, both made by Textron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would expect this fall, or certainly by December or January, that we would make a decision on whether to do a follow-on experiment \u2014 it would be a combat experiment \u2014 and which aircraft might participate in that,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would probably bring it to the theater. I\u2019m not sure exactly what missions they would run, but one of the things we can do is see how it connects up with command-and-control systems, those kinds of things,\u201d she continued. The U.S. military conducted a similar experiment, called Combat Dragon II, in 2013 where it operated a pair of upgraded OV-10 Broncos in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\t