The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has chosen a sophisticated aerial combat system-integrated aircraft for its Armed Overwatch program, which essentially spun off from the Air Force's Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance program back in 2020. The Sky Warden-system integrated AT-802U, made in conjunction via Air Tractor and L3Harris, will be the program's driving force, delivering 75 manned aircraft at an initial total of $170 million.
Air Tractor, the maker of the modified crop duster AT-802U, announced the news on their own blog, highlighting several performance metrics and design concepts that underpin their aircraft. In addition, while the contract in its initial state maintains a $170 million price tag, the Armed Overwatch program contract has a cost ceiling of $3 billion, meaning more aircraft can be scooped up in the long run if USSOCOM officials see the need.
Unlike the Air Force's Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance program, which focused on light attack aircraft for bombings and tactical defense procedures, the Armed Overwatch program leans more so in the espionage and surveillance category. That's not to say that the AT-802U won't be kitted out with weapons, though, as strike coordination and missiles will still be retrofitted to the aircraft over the course of the next six months.
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The Armed Overwatch program launched in 2020 with the goal of acquiring 75 manned, propeller-driven turboprop aircraft. In April of this year, three different potential aircraft were earmarked for the program, the AT-6 Wolverine out of Textron Aviation Defense, Sierra Nevada Corporation's MC-145B Coyote, and the winners, L3Harris' AT-802U Sky Warden. The integrated Sky Warden system out of L3Harris specifically is the main draw for the Armed Overwatch program, given its innumerable advantages in reconnaissance and surveillance procedures.
"Sky Warden will bring powerful and affordable close air support, precision strike, armed ISR, and command and control capabilities directly to special operations forces in the battlefield," explains L3Harris' Sean Stackley, president of the firm's Integrated Missions Systems arm.
The technology itself first debuted all the way back in May of last year, when Air Tractor and L3Harris first explored the potential of their dually made aircraft. The AT-802U boasts the largest payload capacity of any single-engine turboprop aircraft and is heavily modified with so-called "world-class" sensors and airborne ISR solutions via L3Harris. The latter firm will begin production configuration and customer weapon system testing for the next six months, while mainline production of the fully-modified Armed Overwatch mission-configured AT-802U will start in 2023.
The system will allow the USSOCOM to add much-needed fixed-wing, affordable, and sustainable single-engine aircraft to its fleet for a variety of purposes, the most prominent among them being irregular warfare operations, close air support, and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) in somewhat permissive environments. A total of six new AT-802U will be delivered via a low-rate initial production Lot 1.
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