Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos join Air Force Test Pilot School fleet
October 14, 2024
The trio of A-29 Super Tucano aircraft actually arrived at Edwards Air Force Base on 18 July to join the Air Force Test Pilot School’s unique fleet, though their reassignment was not announced until 9 October. They flew in from Davis-Monthan AFB after a stop at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport, about 130 miles south of Edwards. Their arrival marked the first newly assigned aircraft for the school in nearly 30 years.
The Air Force Test Center and school leadership saw these excess aircraft as representing a unique opportunity to expand the flight test and training capabilities at Edwards.
The Air Force Test Pilot School’s mission is evolving to meet new strategic needs, as part of a broader shift in response to Global Power Competition. The School says that: “A refined three-pillar focus includes development of world-class staff, creating highly adaptive critical thinking test leaders, and advancing cutting-edge research.”
The A-29’s airframe design is perfect for spin testing, but the Super Tucano also offers an array of modern avionics and has the ability to externally hang equipment on its wing pylons and undernose station. This will allow the school to conduct training and research on a variety of multi-domain sensors and weapons, reducing reliance on its T-38 and F-16 aircraft while enhancing the ability to perform aspects of the developmental test mission tasked to the Air Force Test Center.
Michael Banzet, director, Air Force Test Center plans and programs said that: “The decision to transfer A-29 aircraft to Edwards is a result of thoughtful analysis by the Test Pilot School and an excellent example of command agility and collaboration to take advantage of a unique, fleeting opportunity. Not only does this repurpose a $63 million taxpayer investment, it also modernizes and expands TPS curriculum to accelerate the fielding of combat capability for the USAF.”
The three A-29s were originally acquired by Air Force Special Operations Command to support AFSOC’s Combat Aviation Advisor (CAA) mission, supporting the training of CAAs, US personnel who pass on their expertise by helping to train allied air forces. The three aircraft were built by the Sierra Nevada Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida, under licence from Embraer, and were delivered to Hurlburt Field in March 2021. The second of the three aircraft was painted in a heritage colour scheme at the request of AFSOC, recalling the command’s World War II heritage and representing the 1st Air Commando Group’s Mustangs and P-47s exploits supporting the Chindits in the CBI theatre.
They were divested after mission requirements changed, and the 6th and 711th Special Operations Squadrons (the USAF’s two dedicated CAA units) were stood down, ostensibly as part of a broader shift towards preparing for future high-end fights after decades of counter-insurgency and other lower-intensity missions.
The USAF had previous experience of the A-29, which equipped the 81st Fighter Squadron at Moody AFB from 2014. The squadron was reactivated at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia as a a geographically separated unit assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, and provided training for allied nations in close air support operations, principally training Afghan pilots to fly the A-29 as part of the Light Air Support (LAS) programme. The Squadron developed Tactics, Techniques and Procedures and a 13-month training syllabus, and then delivered “full-spectrum training that not only produced combat-ready attack pilots, but also a mindset that prevents civilian casualties to the greatest extent possible.”
The first class of eight Afghan pilots and 12 maintainers graduated from the programme in December 2015, and the Air Force delivered four A-29s to Afghanistan a month later. The final class of Afghan pilots graduated at Moody Air Force Base on 13 November 2020, and the last of the A-29s were delivered to Afghanistan in February 2021. The Squadron also trained A-29 pilots for Lebanon and Nigeria – always using ‘customer aircraft’. The Squadron inactivated in 2022.
