Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein has said the service branch plans to include in the fiscal 2017 supplemental budget proposal a request for additional funds to perform a flight demonstration of a light attack aircraft, Defense News reported Thursday.
Goldfein, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event Thursday that he intends to exercise the authority in the new legislation to conduct experiments.
Valerie Insinna writes the Air Force’s unfunded requirements list allocated $8 million in funds for the flight demonstration and that the service branch plans to procure light attack aircraft in support of low-end operations in the Middle East under the OA-X program.
Goldfein noted the service branch plans to ask industry to offer light-attack plane options in support of aerial combat missions as well as use the operational data gathered from the Combat Dragon II test to help in the search for the new aircraft, according to a report by Matthew Cox for DoD Buzz.
“I’m not interested in something that requires a lot of research and development here,†Goldfein said.
“I’m looking for something that I can get at right now commercial, off-the-shelf, low cost that can operate in an uncontested environment and can deliver the capabilities that we need,†he added, according to the report.
