WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Operations Command should reconsider its plan to purchase 75 Armed Overwatch aircraft, a government watchdog said Thursday.
The Government Accountability Office really useful the command decelerate its acquisition of the AT-802U Sky Warden, its alternative for Armed Overwatch program, starting in fiscal 2025 until SOCOM carries out a more thorough evaluation for the fleet.
Armed Overwatch is a program to field flexible, fixed-wing aircraft that Air Force Special Operations Command could deploy to austere locations. The hassle would require a comparatively small logistical tail.
SOCOM in 2022 chosen the single-engine, two-person Sky Warden, made by L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor, for this system and expects to spend $2.2 billion to purchase the planes through FY29. The Sky Warden is meant to perform close air support; precision strike; and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for counterterrorism operations and irregular warfare.
Air Force Special Operations Command considers Armed Overwatch useful to pressure violent extremist groups in areas equivalent to Africa, where the airspace is basically uncontested. The aircraft would take over missions now supported by the older and retiring U-28 Draco.
However the study SOCOM performed to come to a decision it needed 75 Armed Overwatch planes “relied on unproven assumptions” and didn’t justify a fleet of that size, GAO said in its report, titled “Special Operations Forces: DOD Should Slow Acquisition of Armed Overwatch Aircraft Until It Conducts Needed Evaluation.”
When GAO ran the numbers on the commond’s force structure ratios and operational need estimates, it got here up with a “substantially smaller” fleet size, though the watchdog didn’t say by what number of.
SOCOM’s studies also made assumptions in regards to the Armed Overwatch aircraft that didn’t reflect its expected capabilities or how it will be employed in operations, GAO said.
The office said documents and discussions with SOCOM officials showed the command had already decided it needed between 70 and 75 Armed Overwatch planes in 2019, two years before it began the obligatory force structure analyses.
SOCOM also didn’t consider how changes to its mission, equivalent to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and possible reductions in force structure would affect its need for an Armed Overwatch plane, GAO said.
SOCOM also didn’t consider whether changes within the Armed Overwatch plane’s capabilities would affect what number of it will must buy, GAO said. The Sky Warden plane on which SOCOM ultimately settled is more capable than the airplane the command originally envisioned for Armed Overwatch, which “could significantly change” what number of planes it actually needs, the report said.
GAO didn’t rule out the likelihood that the intended fleet of 75 could also be fewer than SOCOM needs, for the reason that proper evaluation has not been performed. The office really useful SOCOM conduct a more thorough study of what it needs for Armed Overwatch. Until that evaluation is finished, GAO said, the Pentagon should require the command to only buy the minimum variety of Sky Wardens needed to keep up its production line and support operational test and evaluation starting in 2025.
The Defense Department agreed with GAO’s first suggestion and said it will analyze the force structure needed for Armed Overwatch.
The department partially agreed with the suggestion to temporarily limit Armed Overwatch acquisition, but said SOCOM will even consider whether it has enough aircraft to coach the primary cadre of aircrew to fly the Sky Warden and arrange a training pipeline.
GAO said it agrees that training aircrews is a very important a part of establishing Armed Overwatch, but buying the correct variety of planes is significant for SOCOM to establish its training plans and use personnel most efficiently.
SOCOM bought 16 Sky Wardens as of October 2023, and expects that number to rise to twenty-eight aircraft by April 2024.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.