Jane Edwards
The U.S. Air Force has asked industry to participate in an experiment that seeks to assess light-attack aircraft platforms in support of the service branch’s future force structure.
The live-fly experiment is set to occur at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in the summer of 2017 as part of the Light Attack Capabilities Experimentation Campaign, the Air Force said Monday.
The military branch’s strategic development planning and experimentation office at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio oversees the campaign.
Service personnel will fly off-the-shelf attack planes during the live-fly experiment to evaluate such aircraft in armed reconnaissance, strike control and reconnaissance, combat search and rescue, close air support and other combat missions.
The experiment will feature mission events such as precision munition surface attack and medium-altitude surface attack in both day and night as well as assess light-attack planes for counter-ground operations through the use of weapons employed in other fighter aircraft.
“This is an evolution of the close air support experimentation effort which we have now broadened to include a variety of counter-land missions typical of extended operations since Desert Storm,†said Lt. Gen. Arnie Bunch, military deputy for the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition.
The service branch will use the results from the experimentation campaign to identify requirements and guide future acquisition decisions.
Responses to the invitation are due April 7, according to a FedBizOpps notice posted Friday.
