Over the past couple of days I've been musing over a CRW/COIN/LIW aircraft more suited to the role than currently operated PC-9 and MB-339 trainers. What I have come up with is described below. I've been through a number of different configurations and settled upon this. Some of the other configurations considered were a Pucara style aircraft with fuselage mounted turbofans a la A-10. A twin boom affair with jets mounted over the wings with a stepped cockpit and a similar aircraft to the OV-1 with either turbofans or turboprops.
The aircraft designated Wodan/Wōden by the Atlantian Air Ministry completed IFT&E in December 2011 and has followed with several minor modifications to the design. The Atlantian government is expected to finalize an order for between 18 to 24 aircraft to equip 3-4 squadrons.
The aircraft itself is a two engined, twin boom, push/pull design with side by side seating for it's crew of two. Both crew members sit on Martin Baker Mk.16 zero-zero ejection seats. There are a total of thirteen hardpoints on the aircraft for a payload of 3000kg.
Preliminary Specifications:
Crew: 2
Length: 15.5m
Wingspan: 16m
Height: 3.65m
Empty Weight: 3600kg
Loaded Weight: 6000kg with 100% fuel and 500kg stores
Max. Take-off Weight: 8700kg
Useful Load: ~3900kg of stores and fuel
Powerplant: 2x Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6A-67F turboprops @ 1250kW ea.
Fuel Capacity: 1900kg
Cruising Speed: 455km/h
Maximum Speed: 530km/h
Service Ceiling: 9159m
Range: 2000km
Combat Radius: 550km with 5 hours loitering time
Armament & Avionics
Internal Guns: (2 of any of the listed)
- M134 7.62mm x51 Gatling Gun
- GAU-19 12.7mm x99 Gatling Gun
- GAU-21/M3 12.7mm x99 HMG
- M230 30mm x113 Cannon
Gunpods: (Centreline and inboard wing hardpoints)
- Plamen PL-20 20mm x102 cannon pod
- M18 7.62mm x51 (M134) Gatling gun pod
Unguided Rockets: (Fuselage and middle wing hardpoints)
- 6rd M260 / LAU-5002 pods (LAU-5002 Wired for precision guidance kits)
- M261 / LAU-5003 pods (LAU-5003 Wired for precision guidance kits)
Guided Missiles: (All hardpoints to an extent)
- MAPATS
- Spike ER
- Spike NLOS
- Dual Mode Brimstone
- MBDA Mistral II
Unguided Bombs:
- Mk81,82 and 83 series bombs
- CBU-87,89 and 97 series cluster bombs
Guided Bombs:
- GBU-38 and 32 JDAMs (500 and 1000lb)
- GBU-54 LJDAM (500lb)
- GBU-58 E-Paveway II (250lb)
- CBU-103,104 and 105 series cluster bombs
- GBU-53 SDB
Other Stores:
- Rafael RECCELITE EO reconnaissance pod
- Selex Galileo PICOSAR ground surveillance radar pod ~ semi permanently mounted
- FLIR Systems BRITE Star II EO gimbal ~ semi permanently mounted
Systems:
- Thales NAVFLIR (embedded in port boom)
- Full spectrum countermeasures suite from Thales and Selex Galileo
- Air-Ground/Ground-Air datalink + SATCOM datalink
~Regards, Mark.