On October 26, the US-based Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and its Brazilian partner Embraer Defense and Security announced in a press release that the US purchased 6 additional A-29 warplanes for the “Afghanistan Program”.
The A-29 is a light warplane that’s used by the Afghan Air Force as a Counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft. The warplane is also used in aerial reconnaissance mission, and for training Afghan Air Force pilots.
The total Number of A-29 warplanes that have been bought by the US for the Afghanistan Program is now 26. However, only 12 are currently in service with the Afghan Air Force. Afghanistan received the last batch of four A-29s at the end of March. Meanwhile another seven warplanes are stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, US for pilot training. The warplanes will be handed over to the Afghan Air Force in the upcoming months, according to Afghan officials.
“We believe this decision demonstrates that the A-29 Super Tucano is the best aircraft for close air support operations, as well as the most proven, reliable and cost-effective solution for counterinsurgency and irregular warfare scenarios … We are honored to continue to support the US government in this critical mission,” said Jackson Schneider, president and CEO of Embraer Defense and Security.
The A-29 warplane has very limited ground-attack and close air support capabilities. However, the warplane is easy to fly and maintain, and its considered one of the cheapest warplanes to operate. One hour of flight on it costs only $1,000.
The Afghan Air Force also received dozens of US-made MD500 Defender light attack helicopters, and Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters within the framework of the US Afghanistan Program.
toys
It is a toy that can fly during the heaviest rains in amazon forest and operate under the harshest conditions, this airplane was not made for this type of conflict, its primary role is patroling the vast brazilian borders to shoot down small planes used by criminals and bomb ilegal airfields and narcoguerrila camps in the forest, we never made it for USA wars.
I had such feeling about this plane. Thank you for your information.
Everything about this plane screams fuel economy and roughness, south america has very few tanks and advanced warmachines, and in fact very few fighter jets to begin with, you don’t need hi-tech space jets to kill some bandits with aks in the forest.
It probably does 75% of what an A-10 can do for half the cost.
Actually the cost to operate the tucano is just 15% the cost to operate the a-10.
I see that it has some additional armor plates on the sides of the cockpit?
Yes, it also has armor on the entire lower part of the fuselage to protect it from small arms, it is an anti-guerrila airplane.
Buy Yak-130 trainer/ attack (CAS) aircraft from Russia. Problem solved.
US military-industrial complex will severely restrict the Afghan government, as long as it controls Afghanistan for the trillion dollar opium/ heroine trade. If puppets like Obama can fire both democratically elected presidents of Iraq and Afghanistan like he did in 2014, then they have no real sovereignty.
Actually the Super Tucano is much larger than yak-152, and yak-130 is another category of plane much more expensive and costly to operate.
I’m quite sure russians can make a plane equal, if not better, than ours, but at the moment they don’t have anything alike.
Those allow you more time to scream while your plane is burning.
If it’s cheaper than the manpads that shoot it down it might be a win.
Pilot is never cheaper than MANPADS.
A flashback to the aviation days of WW-II. I love it! Rusiia should do something similar with the IL-2 Sturmovik.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2-Ij1g8nP4
The “Afghan Air Force”… good one! I’ll bet they’re grateful for getting some planes and choppers, though.
I’m sure the american taxpayer is really grateful.
Its great when air superiority with interceptors like the Su-35 is maintained. The slower speed means the plane has more time to machine gun or drop bombs on convoys.
This would be a great plane to beef up the largely decimated Syrian Air Force in the short term while it recovers its country and would be great for taking back the stolen oil fields to the East.
If only Russia would sell it to Syria and Iran.
That would be great.
Its also great if they could soup it up with some 20 mm guns for serious tank busting role.
There are some great videos of this plane on Youtube of them being used by the Afghan air force.
Good luck tank busting with 20mm guns.
Good. Dont need a $100 million jet that costs $68,000 per flight hour to kill jihadis in a pickup truck.
LoL.. the Bronco OV-10 is and was better and not ever to be outed by the “taco” single engine two seat trainer..