America’s Scorpion Jet Fighter Could Fly in Asia and Africa (WSJ Photo)

Wall Street Journal via Medium War is Boring ^ | November 22, 2014 | Thomas Newdick

[C19fan]

When Textron AirLand first announced the Scorpion—a lightweight surveillance and strike aircraft—last year, it raised a few eyebrows.

Now the American company is talking about the first two potential customers for the diminutive jet. Namely, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

Neither country has bought the Scorpion … yet. But the company is pitching the aircraft as a solution for featherweight and middle-size countries looking for an advanced combat plane that doesn’t break the bank.

This is especially the case for countries that need eyes in the sky—and the ability to go after insurgents.

[C19fan]

Scorpion is a privately financed effort to build an afforable attack aircraft using off the shelf commercial parts. The major advantage is lower upfront and operating costs compared to high performance military jets. For countries that face more internal problems it is a viable option.

[Menehune56]

Nice looking airplane.

[SES1066]

Deliberately designed to a ‘bronze’ level of performance, the Scorpion would probably be adequate-to-excellent for 80% of likely tasking. Subsonic, high loitering, twin-engined, ‘low’ maintenance means that training is relatively straight-forward and affordable. Avionics would be a variable cost as they are both a significant cost but considerably enhance the aircraft ESPECIALLY if the purchaser has the infrastructure.

[Organic Panic]

Sell lots. I am a vendor for them.

[BenLurkin]

I would ping FReeper Sukhoi but I can’t remember his exact name.

[BenLurkin]

[TalonDJ]

ping