Free Republic

The U.S. changed plans and is giving the Jordanian military upgraded AF-802s to use in its fight against terrorism. (US Defense Department/ War Is Boring) They may look like your average crop dusters, but four U.S. planes being sent to Jordan are outfitted with state-of-the-art surveillance gear and laser weapons that will allow the Middle Eastern ally to patrol its lawless eastern border with Iraq, where the ISIS threat looms large. The spy planes, retrofitted 36-foot AT-802 two-seaters, were initially destined for Yemen, where the U.S. had been trying to help the president hold off an Iranian-backed siege. But...

PICTURE: AirTractor delivers UAE's first AT-802Us By Stephen Trimble The first two of 10 AirTractor AT-802Us ordered by the United Arab Emirates air force have been spotted by alert photographers. The counter-insurgency aircraft - each powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6A turboprop engine - arrived at Luqa airport in Malta in late December while en route to their final destination in the UAE. Abu Dhabi ordered the adapted cropdusters last year, when it became the first acknowledged military buyer for the counter-insurgency version. The AT-802U is fitted with a turret-housed electro-optical/infrared sensor to identify targets on the ground....

PICTURE: Air Tractor prangs precision strike demonstrator By John Croft A too-short landing at an Army reserve base in California caused substantial damage Air Tractor's AT-802U surveillance, precision strike and utility demonstrator aircraft on 21 October. According to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, a pilot and flight test engineer flying in the two-seat modified agricultural single at the time were testing maximum performance takeoffs and landings on the 1,829m (6,000ft) hard clay Schoonover runway at Fort Hunter Liggett California when the accident occurred. Neither was injured. ©NTSB "The pilot was attempting a short field landing and had full...

FARNBOROUGH: Air Tractor sells anti-insurgent fighter to first customer By Stephen Trimble Texas-based Air Tractor has launched production of the AT-802U surveillance, precision strike and utility aircraft for an undisclosed foreign customer, chief designer Lee Jackson confirms. Details about the order's size and identity remain secret at the request of the customer, Jackson says. The converted cropduster parked on the static line also displayed a full array of weaponry, including an all-new precision glide bomb with 3m (10ft) circular error probable (CEP) accuracy in the 50kg (110lb)-class designed by Moog/FTS that is called the "border protection weapon" (BPW). The AT-802...

PHOTOS: New gunship flies to Paris Air Show debut By Stephen Trimble on June 6, 2009 The Air Tractor AT-802U is now en route from Olney, Texas, to Le Bourget, France, to be unveiled at the Paris Air Show, said Lee Jackson, design engineer. Featuring an armoured fuselage, a 10hr loiter time and the ability to haul more than 8,000lb of payload, unarmed AT-802Us have been operated by the US State Department in South America since 2002 eradicating drug crops, Jackson said. Air Tractor is now offering the weaponized AT-802U Air Truck to the US Air Force and other militaries...