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1 [1] (March 30, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govecwg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inrorrning the IegisLAi~e debela since 19~4 Updated March 30,2021 Air Force OA-X Light Attack Aircraft/SOCOM Armed Overwatch Program On October 24, 2019, the U.S. Air Force is sued a final request for proposals declaring its intentto acquire anew type of aircraft. The OA-X light attack aircraft is a small, two-s eat turboprop airplane designed for operation in relatively permissive environnents. The announcement of a formal programfollowed a series of Air Force experiments to determine the utility ofsuch an aircraft. Following conclusion of the Air Force experiments, the programpassedto U.S. Special Operations Command as the Armed Overwatch program, with a goal of acquiring 75 aircraft. Why Light Attack? During 2018, then-Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson often expressed the purpose of a new light attack aircraft as giving the Air Force an ability to free up more sophisticated and expensive assets for other tasks, citing the example of using high-end F-22jets to destroy a drug laboratory in Afghanistan as an inefficient use ofresources. Per-hour operating costs for light attack aircraft are typically about 2%-4% those of advancedfighters. She and other officials have also noted that the 2018 National Defense Strategy puta greater emphasis on potential conflicts against capably armed nation-states, further stressing a need to minimize the use ofhigh-end assets in other types of conflict. (For more on that document, see CRS InsightIN10855, The 2018 National Defense Strategy, by Kathleen J. McInnis.) Conversely, Former Secretary ofDefense Robert Gates had criticized the Air Force as focusing excessively onthe kind of high-end, near-peer conflicts in that strategy; the light attack aircraft can be seen as making the Air Force more relevant to low-end and counterinsurgency warfare. History In January, 2016, LtGen James Holmes (then Air Force Deputy ChiefofStaff for Strategic Plans and Requirements) indicated to CRS that the Air Force was considering starting two programs related to ground-attack operations. One, called OA-X, would examine existing, off-the-shelf' light attack aircraft to add a low-end capability for use in relatively permis sive air environments such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The other, dubbed AX-2, would develop an eventual replacement for the existing A - 10 Thunderbolt II. The Air Force subsequently publicized these concepts, although they were not includedin the fiscal 2017 budgetsubmission. OA-X, its ability to operate with coalition partners, andto initially evaluate candidate aircraft. The first phase included four aircraft: the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29; Textron/BeechcraftAT-6B; Air Tractor/L3 OA-802 turboprops, variants of which are in service with other countries; and the developmental Textron Scorpion jet. First-phase operations continued through August 2017. Figure I. Sierra Nevada/EmbraerA-29 Source: U.S. Department of Defense. Note: Shown in Afghan service. Fiare 2. Textrnn/feecnrhraft AT-6 Source: U.S.Air Force photo by Ethan D. Wagner. On July 31, 2017, the Air Force beganwhat it called the Capability As sessment of Non-Developmental Light Attack Platforms, an experiment to determine the utility of an https://crs reports.congress.gov f 't