Danger Room - Blackwater Buying Counter-Insurgency Aircraft
Danger Room - Blackwater Buying Counter-Insurgency Aircraft
Quote:
Uh, oh. Blackwater, private security contractor that some people seem to love to hate, is in the market for an attack aircraft, a likely prelude to offering foreign air forces training in counter-insurgency operations. Jane's Defence Weekly reporter Nathan Hodge (and husband of DANGER ROOM contributor) has an exclusive story (sorry, subscription only) on Blackwater's plans to purchase an Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano trainer/light attack aircraft:
Quote:
Blackwater President Gary Jackson confirmed to Jane's at the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration in Stafford, Virginia, in mid-August that the company is in the process of acquiring the Super Tucano for a new training programme. Transfer of the aircraft to the US is still subject to US government approval and Blackwater would offer no further comment on the transaction or the planned training programme.
If the deal goes through, it will give the company a significant boost in a growing international market for fixed-wing tactical flight instruction, as well as a potential platform for counter-insurgency-style training.
In the actual blog post, Blackwater is first described as a "merc outfit" in strikethrough font. I could not replicate the formatting above so I removed it.
training aircraft as COIN
It's not so much that these are all training a/c, it's just that they are relatively cheap, two seat propellor driven a/c that can fly at slower speed than jets, and given current (also relatively cheap) modifications such as NVG's, GPS, and GPS guided munitions, they can be very effective. Also, asking air forces that are trying to stand up like the Iraqi and Afghan AF's, these are a/c that can be operated much easier than high end jets.
COIN Aircraft vs. Advanced Reconnaissance Helicopter
Here's my question about this whole concept. What exactly are the capabilities DoD thinks it's going to get out of say, an AT-6 Texan II or whatever, that it can't get out of the ARH (speaking of which, is that program canceled, on hold, or what)?
All of the advantages a slow-moving turboprop has over, say, an A-10 or F-16, a good modern scout helicopter (the Kiowa is an old design) would have over that turboprop, right? Loiter time, versatility, hovering and maneuverability capabilties, etc. And the speed of a turboprop wouldn't be that much more in terms of vulnerability to ground fire, would it?
That is, would that turboprop really be less susceptible to SA-7s or RPGS than the ARH, if the chopper was at full speed?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding capabilities, but to me the whole program smacks of the Air Force trying to say "we're relevant in COIN! Really! Trust us!"
Matt