Tactical Air Support, Inc. (Tactical Air) is an American

defense contractor A defense contractor is a business organization or individual that provides products or services to a military or intelligence department of a government. Products typically include military or civilian aircraft, ships, vehicles, weaponry, and ...

headquartered in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

, Nevada at Reno-Stead Airport. Some of its employees are former fighter weapons school and operational

commanders Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries, t ...

, instructors, and/or

test pilots A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

that specialize in advanced tactical

air support Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as Strafing, strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS r ...

. Tactical Air provides

consulting A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

and commercial air services (including JTAC training,

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

chase, flight training,

maintenance The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

, and adversary support) to U.S. and allied forces in a manner similar to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) and the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Weapons School. TacAir Global, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tactical Air Support, Inc., focuses on international training. In 2013, Tactical Air began providing F-5 refresher training to the Botswana Defence Force.

Aircraft

Tactical Air Support's flight operations began in 2008 when it became the first non-government company outside of Sukhoi trained to fly, operate, and maintain the

Sukhoi Su-27 The Sukhoi Su-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a Soviet Union, Soviet-origin twinjet, twin-engine supersonic Supermaneuverability, supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the lar ...

Flanker. In September 2011, Tactical Air received an Embraer A-29 Super Tucano in contract-ready condition. The two-seat, turboprop Super Tucano is a specialty military light-attack aircraft renowned for its capabilities in counter-insurgency and air-to-ground bombing, and is the only one of its kind offered in the U.S. through an Aerospace/Defense services contractor as Tactical Air is the only commercial operator currently flying one. In 2013, the company added four

Canadair CF-5 The Canadair CF-5 (officially designated the CF-116 Freedom Fighter) is a Canadian licensed-built Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter. It is a light, supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twin engine, daylight air superiority fighter primarily for the Cana ...

D Freedom Fighters and an F-5B, (supersonic fighter/attack aircraft all two-seater ) and 20 years' worth of spare F-5 parts to its existing

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

fleet. The company's fleet also includes

Aero L-39 Albatros The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced by Aero Vodochody in the Czech Republic. In addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also flown combat missions in a light-attack role. Desp ...

jet trainer/light attack aircraft, Marchetti SF-260TP and SM-1019 turboprop light attack/utility aircraft, and

Mooney M20 The Mooney M20 is a family of Reciprocating engine, piston-powered, four-seat, propeller-driven, general aviation aircraft, all featuring low wings and tricycle gear, manufactured by the Mooney International Corporation.Munson, Kenneth & Mich ...

E and

Cirrus SR20 The Cirrus SR20 is an American piston-engined, four- or five-seat composite material, composite monoplane built since 1999 by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota. The aircraft is the company's earliest type certificate, type-certified model, ea ...

aircraft used for UAV chase and pilot currency. In 2017, 21 F-5 E/F were recovered from

Royal Jordanian Air Force The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF; Arabic: سلاح الجو الملكي الأردني, ''Silāḥ al-Jaww al-Malakī al-ʾUrdunī'') is the aerial warfare branch of the Jordanian Armed Forces. Founded in 1955, the RJAF serves as the primary ...

Aircrew

Tactical Air Support is made up of

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

, and

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

tactical jet fighter pilots, most of whom served 20 or more years on active duty. Several of the

aircrew Aircrew are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose. Commercial aviation Flight deck positions In commercial aviatio ...

still serve and fly in the Reserves and

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia (United States), militia of each U.S. ...

. Nearly every member of Tactical Air is a weapons school graduate (USN/USMC/USAF) and most are former

TOPGUN The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as Top Gun (stylized as TOPGUN), is a United States Navy Military education and training, training program that teaches Air combat manoeuvr ...

instructors.

Consulting

Tactical Air Support's aircrew serve as consultants and tactical subject matter experts for

Naval Air Systems Command The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aeronaval aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. It is one of the Echelon II Navy systems commands (SYSCOM), and was established in 1966 as the succe ...

Navy Warfare Development Command The Navy Warfare Development Command is a command of the United States Navy for the generation and development of innovations in concepts and doctrine for enhanced operational level maritime capability and integration in joint and coalition ac ...

, NSAWC, and others. It partners with larger defense industry companies (including

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

Wyle Wyle or WYLE may refer to: * WYLE (FM), a radio station (95.1 FM) licensed to serve Grove City, Pennsylvania, United States * WYLE (TV), commercial television station in Florence, Alabama *Wyle Laboratories, provider of specialized engineering, sc ...

, ManTech, and

MITRE The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

) on projects that need recent tactical expertise and rapid reach back to the warfare centers of excellence. This support includes technical publication development, project management, tactics development & evaluation, modeling & simulation, and tactical training.

Board of directors

Tactical Air Support's board of directors is chaired by General

Ronald Fogleman Ronald Robert Fogleman (born January 27, 1942) is a retired United States Air Force General (United States), general who served as the 15th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1994 to 1997 and as Com ...

(former Chief of Staff, USAF) and consists of business leaders and retired USN and USMC flag/general officers that served as leaders in their respective service's tactical jet communities.

Sea Also

Aggressor squadron An aggressor squadron or adversary squadron (in the US Navy and USMC) is a squadron that is trained to act as an opposing force in military wargames. Aggressor squadrons use enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures to give a realistic simula ...

* Airborne Tactical Advantage Company * Draken International * Top Aces * Ravn Aerospace

References

{{reflist

External links

Tactical Air Support's website
Aerospace companies of the United States Companies based in Nevada Consulting firms established in 2005 Defense companies of the United States Flight training Military education and training in the United States Fighter aircraft operators Education companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in Nevada American companies established in 2005