National Security

The Air Force wants an attack plane to lighten the load on high-tech jets

By Jamie McIntyre
Published May 26, 2018 4:00am ET
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The Air Force wants an attack plane to lighten the load on high-tech jets
An Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano A-29 experimental aircraft and a Beechcraft AT-6 experimental aircraft flies over White Sands Missile Range, N.M. | (Photos courtesy U.S. Air Force)

In November, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan had a low-tech problem: They wanted to drop a very small bomb on a Taliban drug lab.

And they had only a high-tech, and therefore very expensive, solution: Dispatch a stealthy F-22 Raptor from more than 1,000 miles away.

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Afghanistan Air Force Defense Spending John McCain Pentagon Senate Armed Services Committee Terrorism