Jr Major Usaf David L Peeler

Counterinsurgency Aircraft Procurement Options: Processes, Methods, Alternatives, and Estimates: Wright Flyer Paper No. 40 Jr Major Usaf David L Peeler

Publisher Marketing: A call is being made for an aircraft dedicated to the counterinsurgency (COIN) mission within military academic circles and the special operations community. Support for a COIN aircraft needs hard numbers, given the Air Force's budget constraints brought on by the dedication to the F-22A. Building on Arthur Davis's COIN aircraft advocacy paper, this research doesn't focus on further advocacy, but on a process and method for COIN aircraft procurement. The acquisition focus is on United States Special Operations Command's (USSOCOM) acquisition authority to couple its global war on terrorism (GWOT) mission responsibility with commercial-off-the-shelf aircraft procurement to specifically address the need for an airborne COIN capability. The performance, schedule, and cost information associated with Raytheon's T-6A NTA and Stavatti's SM-27 are reviewed and compared beyond the acquisition process. Additionally, acquisition and operations, maintenance, and support cost estimates are produced for both alternatives. The estimates reflect respective acquisition costs of approximately $211 million and $426 million; and maintenance, and support costs of $38 million and $47 million, respectively. The latter two costs are stated in fiscal year (FY) 2007 dollars. The analysis of alternatives yields a recommendation based on the three key acquisition areas of performance, schedule, and cost. The T-6A NTA platform possesses demonstrated performance, immediate availability, and lower costs, and is recommended by this analysis. Contributor Bio:  Air University Press Walter Gary Sharp Sr. serves as a senior associate deputy general counsel for intelligence at the US Department of Defense, where he advises on legal issues related to intelligence, covert action, intelligence and counterintelligence policy, intelligence oversight, information security, information sharing, security classification policy, information operations, and computer network operations. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Sharp served as an associate deputy general counsel for international affairs at the Department of Defense; the director of legal research for international, comparative, and foreign law at the Law Library of Congress; the director of global and functional affairs within the Bureau of Legislative Affairs at the State Department; and a principal information security engineer at The MITRE Corporation. A veteran with 25 years of service, Dr. Sharp retired as a decorated US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel with prior enlisted service. His military assignments include commanding officer of a field artillery battery, senior prosecutor, deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and international law adviser for the commanding general of the Unified Task Force in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. Dr. Sharp's military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, and his many awards for writing excellence and academic achievement include the Judge Advocate General's School Alumni Association Annual Professional Writing Award and an American Bar Association Award for Professional Merit. Dr. Sharp is the author of numerous articles and three books: UN Peace Operations (1995), CyberSpace and the Use of Force (1999), and Jus Paciarii (1999). He serves as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center where he currently teaches a counterterrorism course, The Law of 24. He has also taught graduate-level seminars on United Nations peace operations and international peace and security. He lectures internationally in universities and other diverse public forums on wide-ranging topics of international law and national security law, such as international peace and security, conflict management, and peacekeeping operations.