COIN Aircraft: Alternative to MiG29s

Part of a Super Tucano's Arsenal

The Super Tucano, a Brazillian made trainer/attacker can be an answer for the pesky Tiger Air Force (TAF) and also for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in Sri Lanka. The plane is specialized for counter-insurgency missions. An effective deterrence power in terms of counter-insurgency can be summarized as a fast Second Strike Capability: staying in the sky as much as they can and performing the missions of airborne warning and striking. It can also be a healthy alternative for the MiG-29s since its cheap, brand new and comes with a service contract.

Crew: One pilot on single seat version, one pilot plus one navigator/student on double seat version
Length: 11.33 m (37.17 ft)
Wingspan: 11.14 m (36.55 ft)
Height: 3.97 m (13.02 ft)
Wing area: 19.4 m² (208.82 sq ft)
Empty weight: 3,020 kg (6,658 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,520 kg (9,965 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 5,200 kg (11,464 lb)
Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68C , 1,600 hp (1,193 kW)

Performance
Maximum speed: 593 km/h (368 mph) Full enough to avoid the LTTE’s anti-aircraft system.
Range: 4,820 km (2,995 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,670 m (35,008 ft)
Rate of climb: 24 m/s (79 ft/s)
Armament
2x 12.7 mm FN Herstal M3P machine guns
1x 20 mm cannon pod below the fuselage
4x 70 mm rocket launcher pods
Conventional and intelligent bombs
2x AIM-9 Sidewinder or MAA-1 Piranha or Python 3/4 air-to-air missiles
External stores on 5 hard points

In this overall perspective, the plane has enough speed and armament, even better than MiG-27. Many of the existing supersonic and subsonic attack-craft in the SLAF make successful dive bombings at low speeds all the time. This is the point in which the aircraft are more vulnerable. However, the LTTE is still incapable of shoot them down. If this is the case, they will face the same problem with the Super Tucano, which flies at the same speed of a dive bombing jet. In addition, the maintenance fee for overhauls, are incomparably lower for Tucanos than jets and the single reciprocal engine of Super Tucano can be easily maintained by the ordinary engineers.

Pride Vs Practicality

During times of peace, a high-tech weapon would be reinforcing a national pride for the people. United Arab Emirate and Saudi Arabia are market makers in the arms trade. Those countries are collecting high-tech weapons like F-15 air superiority fighters, F-16 multi role fighters with their enormous oil money. Even though those weapons never get a chance to be used in reality until the end of airplane’s lifespan, the presence of high-tech weapon system could give a secured mind and pride to the people.

How many countries spend billions of dollars for that sort of military pride? For Sri Lanka, we do not have resources to waste on our pride. Sri Lanka is in a civil war. We need a solution through cost-effective investments of public money.

Video of a Super Tucano Shooting-down a Light Aircraft

SHY & DW