Business Corpus: This Type Of Plane Could Help The U.S. Gain More Allies: Air ForceLight attack aircraft that are less expensive to buy and operate than Lockheed Martin's F-35 or Boeing's F-15 could help the U.S. attract new allies, a top Air Force officer said. The post This Type Of Plane Could Help The U.S. Gain More Allies: Air Force appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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ARLINGTON, Va. — Light attack aircraft that are less expensive to buy and operate than Lockheed Martin's (LMT) cutting-edge F-35 or older fighters like Boeing's (BA) F-15 could help the U.S. attract new allies, a top Air Force officer said Monday.

The Air Force is weighing whether light attack aircraft should become part of the U.S. fleet as well, and just began a second phase of experiments to compare Textron's (TXT) AT-6 Wolverine against the Sierra Nevada/Embraer (ERJ) A-29 Super Tucano.

The A-29, which at $10 million each costs about a tenth of Lockheed's F-35, is already being used by the fledgling Afghan Air Force and is in service in Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and six other countries. The prospect of sharing an aircraft with the U.S. could be an incentive for countries to increase U.S. ties more broadly.

"Lower that cost so we gain new allies with that light attack approach," said Lt. Gen. Jerry Harris, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for strategic plans, programs and requirements, at a Mitchell Institute event. "Not every country can afford an F-35 or even an F-15 or F-16. Partner with other countries that haven't been able to do so at this point."

Textron shares were up 1.4% on the stock market today. Embraer's U.S.-listed shares dipped 0.1%, Lockheed rallied 1.2%, and Boeing rose 2.2%.

The Air Force hasn't decided yet if the experiment will become an official acquisition program, but Congress is open to the purchase of up to 300 light-attack aircraft by 2022. Harris also sounded eager to speed up the process.

"We are doing our best to minimize new development and just take existing things on the shelf so we can speed the acquisition to get this in the fight sooner," he said.

In a series of experiments that started today at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, the Air Force will perform logistics, maintenance, weapons and interoperability tests. The experiments could also include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tests, Harris said.

In the first phase of light attack experiments, which took place in August 2017, the Air Force looked at Textron's Scorpion and the AT-802L Longsword from L3 Technologies (LLL) in addition to the AT-6 and A-29. The four planes flew in both day and night tests, with and without weapons.

The idea behind light attack aircraft is to save money by using them for more routine missions in low-risk environments, and deploy top-of-the-line, fifth-generation aircraft like Lockheed's F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters for missions in more dangerous environments.

Operating a propeller plane like the Super Tucano, for example, would only cost a few thousand dollars per hour vs. $19,000 per hour for Lockheed's F-16 and $44,000 for the F-35A variant, according to Air Force data cited by the Washington Post.

"The price-per-kill today using precision weapons aboard fifth-gen fighters is exorbitant, " Harris said. "And we've been paying that price for decades."

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