Turboprop Combines Cost-Effectiveness, Matching Speed, Weaponry, Connectivity

Sierra Nevada Corporation and Embraer are pitching their collaborative efforts on modified A-29 Super Tucano aircraft as a viable and cost-effective option in the growing cUAS (counter-unmanned aerial systems) market. The two companies have produced about 50 Super Tucanos modified for multi-mission and special ops missions over the past decade.

Ray Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President for Strategy at SNC, and Frederico Lemos, Chief Commercial Officer at Embraer Defense, talked about this new mission capability option on September 22 at the Air and Space Forces Associations conference near Washington, D.C., where they also announced a new deal involving the purchase of an A-29 Super Tucano by SNC for an anticipated Foreign Military Sales case soon to be announced.

The two executives compared what military forces are using now to counteract drone strikes: F-16 or F-18 or even the F-35 at an exorbitant cost-per-hour to operate.

They highlighted the benefits of using the A-29 for cUAS that come down to several things: a slower aircraft at a much lower cost-per-hour that is a closer speed match to most drones now being deployed, and enables longer loiter times.

In addition, the Super Tucano has a range of weaponry it can bring to bear – machine guns, cannon, and rockets. The aircraft also has excellent connectivity with its sensors, communications, and networking.

Fitzgerald said, “Lots of weapons, long loiter time, cost effective to take care of that drone. You don’t need a bespoke F-35 at eleventy billion dollars an hour, right? You can do this in a very cost-effective way.”

Lemos added, “Matching speeds, excellent connectivity. You can receive a lot of intel to address the threat with the right type of platform. You have the machine gun, cannon, you have the rockets, you have the sensor, the right sensor, you have the communications and networking with A-29.”

Both executives said they’ve been presenting the cUAS option but some countries have approached them about it. Fitzgerald said, “We do present it, but a lot of people are calling going, hey, I don’t need to put my F-16 or F-18 up against it, or F-35 God forbid, right. The dollars per hour those don’t make sense.”

The aircraft would be built at the companies’ joint manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, and Lemos said, “We are seeing a strong demand from the market, addressing both past challenges in terms of operations and upcoming challenges. We see the counter-UAS kind of mission and how relevant the A-29 can also be for this kind of mission.”

FMI:  www.embraer.com/ , www.sncorp.com/