AirTractor delivers UAE's first AT-802U

[Lankan Ranger]

AirTractor delivers UAE's first AT-802U

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. AirTractor has integrated a variety of armaments with the type, including guided weapons and a .50cal machine gun pod.

PICTURE: AirTractor delivers UAE's first AT-802Us

 

[Chogy]

I really don't understand this aircraft. There are some vastly better COIN designs, some of them dating back to the 1960's. Note the thick canopy rails in that airplane... compare them to the OV-10 Bronco, which flew in Vietnam:

 

[SQ8]

There was a proposal by Boeing to design a modernized version of the Bronco..
with harztell props and newer gadgets and thingamabobs.

 

[Chogy]

There was a proposal by Boeing to design a modernized version of the Bronco..
with harztell props and newer gadgets and thingamabobs.

I think it'd be a superb COIN aircraft. Supposedly, you could even fit a handful of soldiers into that fuselage pod. It'd be very uncomfortable, but in a pinch, it works.

Twin engine redundancy, plenty of power, it'd be a much better COIN airplane than that air-tractor.

 

[SQ8]

I think it'd be a superb COIN aircraft. Supposedly, you could even fit a handful of soldiers into that fuselage pod. It'd be very uncomfortable, but in a pinch, it works.

Twin engine redundancy, plenty of power, it'd be a much better COIN airplane than that air-tractor.

I think there was never really ever any need for "newer" coin designs..
even with the AT-6 as they are being offered to the IRAKis.. The Bt-61(turboprop C-47's) have the potential to make a fine low cost gunship in my view..as the AC-47's before them..
remember the piper enforcer?? the one based on the P-51.. it would probably outperform the AT-6 in the COIN role.

 

[lonelyone]

All these wars seem to be a windfall for those who are clever enough to cash in on it. I'll start a bomb-scanning equipment factory some time...

 

[Chogy]

All these wars seem to be a windfall for those who are clever enough to cash in on it. I'll start a bomb-scanning equipment factory some time...

Don't you think there's a role for such aircraft?

In Vietnam, it was the A-1 skyraiders that helped protect downed aircrew and provide CAS. They did a much better job than the fast-moving jets, and could loiter for hours...