SOCOM Keeps Pushing for New 'Armed Overwatch' Aircraft.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

Despite hurdles, Air Force Special Operations Command is still gung-ho about purchasing a replacement for its U-28A Draco manned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform that will also be able to offer air support to commandos on the ground in austere regions.

The system--known as Armed Overwatch--is envisioned as a commercially available, multi-role airplane that will contribute to Special Operations Command's counterterrorism mission at lower cost than high-end platforms, said SOCOM Commander Gen. Richard Clarke.

"This program will provide cost-effective, multipurpose aircraft to support operations in remote, austere areas for the foreseeable future," he said in his prepared testimony for a March hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In many remote areas, ISR assets are currently "stretched thin and come at high cost," he noted.

However, the Armed Overwatch initiative recently hit some roadblocks after lawmakers in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act barred the command from beginning procurement this fiscal year as originally planned.

Congressional defense committees also asked SOCOM to conduct additional analysis to evaluate whether other material solutions or existing aircraft might meet the program's requirements, said Navy Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a command spokesperson.

The command awarded a contract to RAND Corp. in November for the analysis, he said in a statement to National Defense. That study was slated to be completed at the end of March.

"We are wrapping up some of the back and forth between SOCOM and the defense oversight committees on the Hill," said Lt. Gen. James "Jim" Slife, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command.

Once the study is finished, the command plans to demonstrate an Armed Overwatch capability with industry in the coming months, he said during a media roundtable at the Air Force Association's Aerospace Warfare Symposium in February.

"We're on track easily to execute and complete our industry demonstrations before the end of this fiscal year," he said. "We're in really, really healthy shape on that right now."

Congress appropriated money in the fiscal year 2021 budget for Special Operations Command to continue research-and-development work on the program including the demo before AFSOC goes to a procurement decision, Slife said. Because of this, "I don't anticipate that we would get into aircraft procurement until FY '22 at the earliest," he noted during a Mitchell...