The Scorpion is a tandem-seat twinjet aircraft with an all-composite material fuselage designed for light attack and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. Production costs were minimized by using common commercial off the shelf technology, manufacturing resources and components developed for Cessna’s business jets; such as the flap drive mechanism is from the Cessna Citation XLS and Cessna Citation Mustang, the aileron drive mechanism is from the Citation X.[3][6][7][8][25] Textron AirLand calls the Scorpion an ISR/strike aircraft, instead of a “light attack” aircraft. The joint venture also states the Scorpion is intended to handle “non-traditional ISR” flights such as those performed by U.S. fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Scorpion is designed to cheaply perform armed reconnaissance using sensors to cruise above 15,000 ft, higher than most ground fire can reach, and still be rugged enough to sustain minimal damage.[26]
The Scorpion is designed to be affordable, costing US$3,000 per flight hour, with a unit cost expected to be below US$20 million.[22]
Vs F-16 “more recent variants starting at $25 to $30 million but potentially reaching $60 to $70 million with improvements.” and $22,000 per hour.
Vid of it https://youtu.be/q7qwQGksyPk
They hope it will replace the A-10.
Aaaahahahahaha "Lets give it no BBBRRRRRRRPPP, a low service ceiling, use the engines as shielding / flak generators for the pilots, and hope to sell it as an A-10!
Well afaik Brrrrrrp is giving way to precision missiles.
The big advantage of brrrp is simplicity. Pull trigger, things go asplodsy and/or turn into pink mist. Close air support, which the 'hog kicked ass at in the sandbox, needs to be reliable and simple. With the proliferation of GPS jamming technologies and other countermeasures, simple and cheap should carry the day.
I don’t know if anything is as physically survivable as the A-10. Certainly not some modern composite that will be grounded for fractures after taking small arms fire. Also, the boots on the ground love the support provided by the A-10, as do the congress critters whose bases are in their districts.
Just rambling thoughts from a village idiot, not looking to start a fight
Yeah but that requires you to be super close. Missile you can fire from far away.