The US Air Force (USAF) has taken delivery of its first L3Harris/Air Tractor OA-1K Skyraider II special mission turboprop.
The aircraft officially joined the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) on 3 April at Hurlburt Field, Florida, according to the USAF.
The aircraft, based on the AT-802 agricultural aircraft, is designed to provide armed overwatch to US special forces operating in austere locations around the world.
The aircraft is named after the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, a piston-engined attack aircraft that served during the Korean and Vietnan Wars.
“Skyraider II represents not just a new platform, but a modular solution to our national security needs,” says Lietenant General Michael Conley, AFSOC commander.
“It will redefine how we approach joint campaigning, crisis response and the evolving landscape of modern warfare.”
The aircraft is equipped with an electro-optical/infrared sensor, advanced communications gear and can carry weapons such as the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile and the BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System.
The aircraft can also carry the GBU-12 laser-guided bomb.
L3Harris, which modified the AT-802 airframe to the OA-1K standard, says that the company is “on track to deliver more follow-on aircraft”. Original plans for the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Armed Overwatch programme called for 75 to be obtained, but this was reduced to 62.
The acquisition is not without controversy, as the aircraft was conceived as a response to counterinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It would have questionable utility in a conflict against so-called “near peer” threats such as China and Russia.
Moreover, the war in Ukraine has highlighted the extreme vulnerability of aircraft, including advanced jets, to modern air defences.
