Simpler, cheaper planes steal the show in Paris

Published 16 June 2009

Simpler, slower, and cheaper planes, loaded with weapons, attract attention at the Paris Air Show; these planes are more suitable for the budget-conscious Pentagon — and for fighting insurgents; Stephen Biddle: “Somebody roaring by at 500 miles per hour has a harder time of distinguishing between civilians and insurgents”

Used to be the case that “fast and sleek” were the adjectives most prized by airplane designers. Reporting from this year Paris Air Show, the Wall Street Journal’s August Cole notes that some of the warplanes drawing the most attention are some of the slowest. Aerospace and defense companies are trying to capitalize on the growing appeal of low-cost planes packed with high-tech surveillance gear and weapons. These planes are now in fashion as the costliest, gold-plated warplanes are falling out of favor at the budget-strapped Pentagon.

Here is one example. Olney, Texas-based Air Tractor, Inc. is displaying its prototype Air Truck AT-802U, which is essentially a two-seat combat-ready crop-duster with weapons and advanced electronics. Cole writes that its chunky, homely looks are brutish enough to make passing generals stop and stare. Its 8,000-pound payload of missiles, rockets, cannons, and bombs offers a contrasting image of air warfare to the larger, sleeker jet fighters that cost tens of millions of dollars and are the typical show-stoppers here. “One of the things people are most surprised by is all the munitions hanging off of it,” said Lee Jackson, an Air Tractor design engineer.

Another example. L-3 Communications Holdings and Alliant Techsystems are among the major defense companies showing off unarmed turboprop surveillance planes at the show. Executives at the companies say the demand for real-time battlefield intelligence is growing for the U.S. military, particularly with increasing numbers of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. L-3 has provided the U.S. Air Force with surveillance planes based on a converted Hawker Beechcraft design that began operating in Iraq last week. Development of the plane had been a Pentagon priority under Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “There’s an unabated appetite” for battlefield intelligence and surveillance, said L-3 chairman and chief executive Michael Strianese. “That unblinking eye is becoming more and more critical.”

Cole writes that Air Tractor’s Air Truck, with a modest 210 miles per hour top speed, will never be a stand-in for the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, the kind of high-tech marvel that keeps enemies away so planes like an Air Truck can operate — but Gates, who plans to end F-22 production, says the U.S. military should focus on fighting insurgents and buying less-expensive weapons systems, making such planes increasingly attractive.

Cole also notes that the U.S. Air Force chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz was a special-operations turboprop-transport-plane pilot. The USAF wants to build up the air wings of foreign militaries in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan to help fight insurgents, and the simpler, cheaper planes are more suitable for the needs of these countries.

Stephen Biddle, a counterinsurgency expert and senior fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Cole that such low-tech planes require less maintenance and can operate from smaller airfields, unlike fast-moving fighter bombers. That allows them to be based closer to combat forces who often are living and operating among locals in rural areas.

Lockheed Martin’s contribution to the “simple-and-slow is beautiful” trend is the the F-16C. The company says the plane can help address an acute concern among top military officers about the strategic implications of accidental civilian casualties caused by U.S. air power. “Somebody roaring by at 500 miles per hour has a harder time of distinguishing between civilians and insurgents,” Biddle said.

Flying slowly at telephone-pole heights makes a plane an easier target, but Air Tractor’s Jackson said added armor and other built-in safety features, such as landing gear that crumples to protect the fuselage in a crash, make the plane safer. The U.S. State Department has flown armored crop-spraying planes for drug-eradication in South America that have been shot at repeatedly. “They’ve taken rounds and they come back,” Jackson told Cole.