Surprising Many, SOCOM Chose This Heavily Modified Ag Aircraft To Go From Cornfields To Battlefields

U.S. Special Operations Command has chosen an airplane based on a well-known crop duster to take on its Armed Overwatch mission, conducting counterterrorism operations and irregular warfare in places like Africa. The AT-802U Sky Warden, produced by L3Harris TechnologiesLHX
and agricultural aircraft maker Air Tractor, beat out better-known airplanes from Textron Aviation and Sierra Nevada to meet SOCOM’s requirement.

The Armed Overwatch program envisions a fleet of up to 75 relatively inexpensive, flexible, fixed-wing aircraft that can deploy to austere locations, with little logistical support to act as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and precision strike assets. The competition to provide a suitable aircraft got underway in May of last year when SOCOM awarded five companies a total of $19.2 million to demonstrate low-cost turboprop alternatives.

Earlier this year the field was narrowed to three candidates – L3 Harris’ Sky Warden, Textron Aviation Defense’s AT-6 Wolverine and Sierra Nevada Corp.’s MC-145B Coyote. The Armed Overwatch mission is essentially viewed as a combination of the ISR role now filled by SOCOM’s Pilatus PC-12-based U-28A Draco and an extension of the Air Force’s aborted Light Attack aircraft program (2009-2020).

Given the blending of roles, many observers thought that an airframer like Textron would have an edge. The USAF, long familiar with the T-6 trainer on which the Wolverine is based, acquired two AT-6s in 2020 and the Royal Thai Air Force ordered eight of the single-engine turboprops for light attack duty in 2021. At the end of July, Textron announced that the Air Force had granted it Military Type Certification, “paving the way for continued global sales of the light attack aircraft.”

Sierra Nevada’s MC-145, a high-wing, twin-engine turboprop derived from the short takeoff and landing, light cargo and passenger-carrying Polish PZL M28 Skytruck, is already in use with Air Force Special Operations Command as the C-145A Combat Coyote. The MC-145’s ability to self-deploy, carrying its own support team, special operators or casualties in addition to its aircrew was seen as a leg up as was its cargo aircraft look.

This low-key “signature” aligned with the initial operational philosophy of the U-28A whose civilian roots arguably allowed it to land in places like Somalia without drawing too much attention to itself or the special operators near it.

The Sky Warden, larger than the AT-6, more militaristic looking than the Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster it’s derived from, and not familiar to the U.S. military was seen as a longer shot. What tipped the scales?

SOCOM hadn’t provided an answer by press time but the Sky Warden’s ability to carry a larger payload than any of the single-engine aircraft evaluated for Armed Overwatch replete with the Common Launch Tube (capable of firing Griffin missiles, drones and other small munitions) favored by the special operations community was undoubtedly attractive.

L3 Harris’ president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Luke Savoie, told me that the AT-802U’s highly integrated mission system, sensor and avionics package was another differentiator for the Sky Warden. Its ability to carry multiple sensors and up to seven tactical line-of-sight and beyond line-of-sight radios is likely attractive to special forces ground teams.

“The difference is in the mission systems and the totality of the package,” Savoie asserts. “Other [Armed Overwatch candidates] leverage a mission system from an aircraft that was never intended to do any of the things [SOCOM] intended it to do.”

As always, price may have been the biggest factor. In a previous piece on the Sky Warden, Savoie told me that he was “very confident” that the aircraft would be cost competitive. No flyaway cost figure was provided by L3 Harris but the simple math deduction from the initial program contract award of $170 million for six low-rate initial production aircraft and systems announced on Monday effectively puts the initial Sky Wardens somewhere in the $20 million per copy range.

The full Indefinite Quantity, Indefinite Delivery contract includes a cost ceiling of $3 billion. For the present, L3Harris plans to rapidly modify its Armed Overwatch prototype demonstrator into the production configuration “and provide for customer weapon system testing in approximately six months,” according to a press release.

The LRIP 1 sextet of Sky Wardens will be manufactured starting in 2023 as “green aircraft” with a special high-strength wing at Air Tractor’s Olney, Texas factory. Air Tractor spokesman, Tom Menker, says that the company recently expanded its facilities there with particular attention to the AT-802 line and has plans for further expansion in the near term. He adds that 2022 will be a record setting year for the Ag aircraft maker but assures it will have enough capacity to meet the delivery requirements for Sky Warden moving forward.

Green AT-802s will be flown up from Texas to L3 Harris’ modification center in Tulsa, Oklahoma where they’ll get their avionics, stores carriage and other equipment packages added. Weapons system testing should commence by or near year’s end and SOCOM says to expect Sky Warden to reach initial operating capability in fiscal 2026, and full operating capability in 2029.

Last year, SOCOM Commander Gen. Richard Clarke, told congress he envisioned four operational squadrons of 15 Armed Overwatch aircraft with one deployed at any given time while the other three executed training rotations in the U.S. A fifth squadron of 10 to 15 planes would be for type transition training.

The contract award puts an interesting aircraft in SOCOM hands which peripherally allows the Air Force to operationally vet its long-desired light attack concept. SOCOM told Defense News it will not immediately seek to retire U-28As as it inducts Sky Wardens, saying the Draco remains needed for ISR and humanitarian relief operations.

The L3 Harris-Air Tractor team will naturally try to capitalize on the win, possibly appealing to operators of the predecessor Longsword AT-802 light attack aircraft it sold to Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. State Department.

“Anyone who sees the need for a multirole aircraft that can fly 11 hours, carry up to four sensors, six to seven tactical line of sight and beyond line-of-sight radios and 6,000 pounds of ordinance should know we’re capable of producing it in parallel with all of our other obligations,” Savoie says.