As if to illustrate my point about MRAP economics, Inside the Air Force published four articles last week about how the USAF and some of its suppliers are getting enthusiastic about economical approaches to military aviation, at least in counterinsurgency. Two covered the MC-12Ss of the Air Force’s Project Liberty, one covered its plans to save fuel during operations, and one covered Boeing’s interest in a modernized version of the OV-10 Bronco.
Project Liberty, named for the Liberty Ship program of the Second World War, merits particular attention. The USAF plans this year to buy 37 MC-12S surveillance aircraft for just under one billion dollars. The MC-12S is a militarized Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350, a twin turboprop business airplane that has been in production since 1972. The government of South Carolina bought one last year for $5.2 million, which gives some idea as to the pricing in volume. Working through the arithmetic, the payload and other modifications amount to around $21 million. For the USAF, that’s a serious focus on the mission over the thrill of centerline thrust.
Aircraft like the OV-10 and the MC-12 could be called the aerial equivalents of MRAPs, in that they’re designed to excel at a particular mission within a realistic set of anticipated threats. In this case, they’re not intended to penetrate dense belts of radar-cued anti-aircraft cannons, but merely to fly above the fracas of insurgents’ Kalashnikovs and rockets. Like the vehicle, the aircraft is important, but it’s what’s carried, whether troops or sensors, that’s critical. And like the MRAPs, these aircraft are certainly less expensive than traditional alternatives.
Project Liberty had been kept quiet until now, so the timing of the announcement—so soon after the change in government in the United States—may be a matter of astute marketing. John Pike of Global Security told the Associated Press that the USAF leadership may be moving against bureaucratic opposition: announced programs are harder to kill off than hushed ones. They may also be trying to show that the Army’s celebrated Task Force Odin should not get all the glory for lethal aerial surveillance. They may even be firing an opening salvo in a budget battle against the Airborne Common Sensor: with 37 highly modifiable MC-12s entering the fleet, the case for a new Army fixed-wing signals intelligence aircraft just got harder to make.
Whatever the reason, we probably have further evidence that General Schwartz, the new USAF chief of staff and former commando air pilot, is having an impact.
Aircraft like the OV-10 and the MC-12 could be called the aerial equivalents of MRAPs, in that they’re designed to excel at a particular mission within a realistic set of anticipated threats.
Posted by: Web Based Project Management Software | 03 June 2010 at 07:10