The U.S. Air Force says that it will begin formally soliciting bids for an undisclosed number of light attack aircraft within months and that Embraer and Sierra Nevada Corporation’s A-29 Super Tucano or Textron’s AT-6C Wolverine look to be the most promising candidates, which could invite protests from other companies. Beyond that, the service doesn’t expect to issue an actual contract until sometime in 2019, a lengthy wait​​​​ for planes that it now admits could have been useful in various conflicts since 1993, well before the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Global War on Terror. On Aug. 3, 2018, the Air Force Materiel Command issued one notice, in error, on FedBizOpps, the U.S. government’s top contracting website, before replacing it with a corrected one. According to the announcement, the service wants to put out a solicitation in December 2018 and pick a winning offer in the fourth quarter of the 2019 Fiscal Year, which runs from July 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2019. The Air Force still has yet to say how many aircraft it expects to purchase as part of what it is now calling the Light Attack Aircraft (LAA) program.

“LAA will provide an affordable, non-developmental aircraft intended to operate globally in the types of Irregular Warfare environments that have characterized combat operations over the past 25 years,” the final noticed explained. “Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and Textron Aviation are the only firms that appear to possess the capability necessary to meet the requirement within the Air Force's time frame without causing an unacceptable delay in meeting the needs of the warfighter.” That latter statement is hardly surprising. As we at The War Zone have pointed out on a number of occasions, the Air Force and other branches of the U.S. military have, together collectively, evaluated one or both of these aircraft on no less than six separate occasions since 2007.

Brazilian Air Force An Ecuadorean Air Force A-29 Super Tucano during a training exercise in Brazil.

Most recently, the service had put the two aircraft types through a series of experiments that it said would explore the potential to integrate additional sensors and networking capabilities, as well as examine their maintenance and logistical requirements. It seemed difficult to understand why the Air Force still needed to gather information on these topics and, after a fatal accident in June 2018, it shut down the tests early and declared it had all the data it needed. On top of that, the Air Force itself already flies A-29s to help train foreign pilots and operates the T-6 Texan II, the unarmed trainer that Textron used as the basis for the AT-6C. It is safe to say that the service has had a wealth of information about these two aircraft and a good understanding of their capabilities and operational requirements for years.

USAF Members of Air Force National Guard look at an AT-6C with various weapons loaded and on display in front during another evaluation of the type in 2010.