The U.S. Air Force is expecting to facilitate the delivery of four OV-10 Bronco light attack aircraft to an unspecified American partner overseas. This could very well be the Philippines, which is the last military user of the type anywhere in the world, and might reflect a shrinking number of government operators of any type worldwide rather than any serious revival of interest in its capabilities. On July 19, 2018, the Proven Aircraft Program Office at Hill Air Force Base, a division of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, announced it could potentially hire a contractor to crate up two OV-10A and two OV-10G+ variants and deliver them to a location overseas. The same firm would then reassemble the planes once they arrive where ever it is that they might be going. Jane's Aviation Editor Gareth Jennings was among the first to spot the notice.

Of particular note, the “two G+ models had over five thousand (5,000) new wires installed during last upgrade without disconnects,” according to the notice that appeared on the U.S. government’s main contracting website, FedBizOpps. “All wiring needs to be pulled back and stored in the fuselage to avoid cutting the wires.” Otherwise, whoever the Air Force might hire simply has to break the Broncos down into their fuselages, wings, nacelles and booms, sponsons, and horizontal stabilizer components for shipment. They would have to custom-build the crates to hold these components, as well.

John Lequerica One of the two OV-10G+ aircraft during its time U.S. Special Operations Command.

The announcement does not say where the aircraft are coming from, but it seems almost certain that they are, or were until very recently, the property of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). An official, publicly available inventory of planes and helicopters the Air Force has in storage at the main U.S. military boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona does not list any OV-10s of any type. NASA, however, has two OV-10A Broncos and, more importantly, the only two OV-10G+ aircraft in existence. It acquired these planes from the U.S. State Department after they passed through the hands of various U.S. government agencies after the U.S. Marine Corps retired them from combat duty in the 1990s. As part of NASA, the four aircraft subsequently helped study low-speed flight, noise, and other aeronautic effects. Selling these aircraft to a foreign government would effectively end the organization's Bronco operations with little likelihood that it would ever acquire additional examples of the type in the future.

NASA All four of NASA's OV-10s together in a hangar at the Langley Research Center in Virginia. The two gray OV-10G+ aircraft are notably missing their sensor turrets under the nose.

It’s not clear what, if any, modifications the planes might receive before delivery, either. Both the OV-10As and OV-10G+s are demilitarized in many ways at present and could require some level of work to bring them back to a combat-capable configuration. This might not be difficult to do in the case of either variant, given the design’s relative simplicity and the extensive work the U.S. Navy already did to the G+ versions as part of a deal that also involved NASA and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). These heavily modified aircraft, which you can read about in detail here and here, subsequently went to Iraq in 2015 for what became a highly successful combat evaluation supporting American-led operations against ISIS terrorists.

SOCOM via FOIA A description of various updates found on the OV-10G+ aircraft. The Navy modified two NASA OV-10D+ aircraft to this new configuration as part of a light attack aircraft experiment in cooperation with U.S. Special Operations Command.

As of July 2016, the aircraft were back in NASA custody. Per the agreement with the Navy and SOCOM, U.S. military personnel or contractors removed weapons and the ability to employ them, as well as a host of other military equipment, before returning them. And while we don’t know what country is in line to potentially get the Broncos, the Philippines seems to be the most likely recipient. It's hard to imagine that another country with no actual or recent experience with the type would decide to acquire such a small number of these aircraft now, especially given the increasingly limited availability of support services for the type. The Philippine Air Force presently has a fleet of eight upgraded OV-10M aircraft. It is possible that they would bring the ex-NASA OV-10As to this configuration or use them as a source of spare parts for these existing aircraft.

NASA One of NASA's OV-10As with a long air data probe at the front for research purposes.