Chris Croot speaks to Brett Pierson, the vice president of Defense Sales and Strategy at Textron Aviation Defense, to discover why the AT-6E Wolverine is the USAF's natural choice for light attack. DEDICATED LIGHT ATTACK aircraft came to the fore during World War Two but their worth was really proven in the skies over Korea and Vietnam. Light attack has been a subject of controversy and debate with the Department of Defense (DoD) for the past three decades. Budget constraints and the need to do more with less has seen their role becoming increasingly taken over by expensive jet-powered, multi-role strike fighters. The US Air Force (USAF) now faces a real dilemma. Does it continue to spend millions of dollars on flight hours for its legacy and fifth-generation fleets to conduct operations in relatively benign theaters such Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan or invest in a new, low cost per flight hour platform? As a former US Navy F/A-18 Hornet pilot and graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School with more than 4,400 flight hours in 84 aircraft types, Brett Pierson - now vice president of Defense Sales and Strategy at Textron Aviation Defense - knows a thing or two about cost. He said: "It is very expensive and not at all cost effective to send a jet burning tons of fuel an hour to do something like the protection of a convoy when a lighter, cheaper platform could do the job just as well if not better."
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