Air Power Association President, Air Marshal (Ret’d) Greg Bagwell CB, CBE weighs up the pros and cons of light attack aircraft.
Commander’s Update Briefing
Column
Cost effective air power or a false economy?
’When you are fighting a counter-insurgency air campaign in geographical areas that cover hundreds of thousands of square miles, the additional speed of response of an advanced combat aircraft saves lives’
I once had a working breakfast on an exercise with a British general (now retired) who was a strong advocate of light attack aircraft as a more cost-effective way of fulfilling the counter-insurgency role in Afghanistan. I delighted him by saying that I thought his idea was brilliant (he wasn’t getting much traction from other senior airmen). However, he was less impressed when I followed up with “…as a replacement for your Apaches”.
Over recent years, rather than being specialist, modern combat aircraft have increasingly been designed for and employed in multiple roles. Some of this has occurred due to the need to be flexible in terms of mission employment, but it has also been driven by cost – on tight budgets it’s increasingly difficult to afford multiple aircraft types, each optimised for a specific role.
