Senate Committee Proposes $100M for Marine Light Attack Aircraft

The Senate Armed Services Committee has proposed $100 million for the U.S. Marine Corps to purchase light attack aircraft as part of a fiscal 2019 defense policy bill, Military.com reported Friday.

The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act contains the funding proposal for a new USMC aircraft platform and is slated for a full Senate vote in the coming weeks for 

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at aerospace and defense consulting firm Teal Group, told Military.com he believes it is possible for the Marines to only use a few dozen light attack planes instead of an entire fleet.

The U.S. Air Force began the second phase of an experimentation last month to further evaluate the Sierra Nevada–Embraer team’s A-29 Super Tucano and Textron‘s AT-6B Wolverine.