Cessna Unveils Military Jet
AVwebFlash
September 18, 2013
Cessna unveiled a twin-engine military interceptor/utility jet that CEO
Scott Ernest told his local Rotary Club will diversify the company's product
line and provide a relatively inexpensive alternative to traditional fighter
aircraft in some roles.
The Scorpion was built in secret over the last 18 months by Cessna engineers
at a facility in Wichita. It has a composite airframe and the engines were
run for the first time last weekend.
"It's basically built..and we are hopefully going to fly it here in the next
two to three weeks," Ernest is quoted by the Wichita Journal as telling the
Rotarians. "It'll be good. It's just another opportunity for us to invest in
the future."
Ernest told the gathering the aircraft will cost about $3,000 an hour to
fly, about 10 percent of the cost of an F-35, and it will carry a big
payload of military hardware. He did not specify what armament it might
carry and instead stressed its potential role carrying sensors for data
collection.
Besides the Air Force, Ernest said the aircraft might appeal to the National
Guard. "It can be very effective within their stable of planes if they allow
it to be and very reliable....It's a cheap alternative to flying some of the
other product, so we'll see," Ernest was quoted as saying. A purchase price
wasn't mentioned.
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Comments from an AVweb Insider
The moment I saw the conceptual art on Cessna's new proposed twin-engine jet
tactical aircraft, the Scorpion, three questions came immediately to mind.
- Is that thing stealthy? not likely, when combined with inexpensive and COTS
- Can it be pilot-optional? would likely make a reasonable UAS if you fit a satellite dish in the cockpit and up the endurance.
- And last, huh?
The answer
to the first two questions might be mooted by the answer to the third: Since
the Pentagon biting on this idea is a long shot, foreign sales may be what
Cessna has in mind, along with its partner developmental company, AirLand
Enterprises.
This is the sort of project you don't see much anymore, given the cost
escalation and vast profit margins in modern weapons systems and the R&D
dollars it takes to create them. The Pentagon has not asked for such an
airplane, so if Cessna wants U.S. sales, it will be cold calling. Sales in
the emerging world may be a different matter, however. The defense export
business has proven profitable for many U.S. manufacturers. Still, things
are a little different now. The countries with money -- Brazil, Russia,
India, and China -- have their own emerging domestic aircraft industries and
if light, cheap, and unsophisticated is the selling point, couldn't those
countries roll their own and export the results? Cessna may be aiming to
find out.
What the Scorpion is supposed to be is a cheap-to-operate,
built-from-the-parts-bin reconnaissance and surveillance platform with some
strike capability. But doesn't that describe the $4-million-a-pop Predator
UAV, not to mention the next generation of drones we don't even know about?
Is there really a need for a five-hour endurance jet to fly missions that
UAVs are already doing?
With budget cuts looming, perhaps Cessna and AirLand are counting on the
Pentagon getting religion on less expensive -- that's not the same as
cheap -- weapons systems. Then again, when has it ever, at least recently? I
suspect Cessna will need lots of friends in Congress to overcome the legions
of supporters that Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman have
cultivated over the years. Although it's sometimes forgotten, Cessna is no
stranger to military aircraft. But its experience with the venerable A-37
Dragonfly, a Vietnam workhorse, is decades old. Textron (partnered with
Boeing) does have military contracts in the V-22 Osprey and various
subsystems. But Cessna was never in the league of a Lockheed, Grumman, or
McDonnell Douglas in the military realm. Perhaps that's a market advantage.
Plying the competitive civil market for so many years, Cessna has had to be
efficient and fast-moving, bringing products to market on time and on
budget, something not normally associated with military contractors. The
F-35 comes to mind. In stepping out of the civil jet realm, Cessna is
stretching. I hope it doesn't distract it further from interest in the lowly
piston airplane, something that's fallen to a record low ebb.
But there's one good reason to cheer for the success of this project. If it
puts more of Wichita back to work, that's a good thing.
Remember the Northrop Grumman F5 and F20. This would seem to be another such.
