ARMED OVERWATCH: SOCOM's New Recon Aircraft to Pack Big Punch.

• Author: Tegler, Jan

When Special Operations Command selected L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor Inc.'s AT-802U Sky Warden for its Armed Overwatch program last August, the command didn't have a formal designation for the rugged, versatile, single-engine airplane now known as the OA-1K.

But they did have a mission in mind.

They wanted one airplane that could "collapse the stack" of aircraft needed to perform irregular warfare missions in remote locales. Able to tackle the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions of the unarmed U-28A Draco and MC-12W Liberty aircraft it will replace, the OA-1K adds strike capability for close air support and precision strike missions with a gunship-like punch.

The contract award to L3Harris for as many as 75 of its modified turboprops could be worth up to $3 billion, according to the command. It's the culmination of an effort to field light attack/reconnaissance aircraft by the Air Force and Special Operations Forces that dates back to 2009.

Transformed into the "Armed Over-watch" program in 2020, it became a competition between six companies in 2021, reduced to three by spring 2022 with the OA-1K chosen on August 1, 2022.

Low initial rate production is already underway at L3Harris's Tulsa, Oklahoma, facility with three OA-1Ks being built, and a fourth aircraft--a modified version of the Air Tractor 802U the special ops airplane is based on--is in use for flight envelope expansion and handling qualities testing, according to the company.

Luke Savoie, L3Harris's president of ISR, said the OA-1K is "all about giving special operators options and flexibility in a package with a small logistical footprint." While it's not clear yet exactly what sensor and weapon combinations Air Force Special Operations Command will load the OA-1K with for different missions, L3Harris considered and modeled options that OA-1K aircrews could employ far away from fixed bases, Savoie said.

"How do you start to bring gunship level effects into austere, very hard to reach areas or areas that are becoming harder to reach because of basing availability or where the enemy has shifted?" he said. "How do you bring the magazine and persistence you need?"

BAE Systems' Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS, is one way to do that, Savoie said. Sky Warden tested and demonstrated APKWS on the AT-802U prototype used during Armed Overwatch program evaluations. The OA-1K can gain outsize effects with such an option, he noted.

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