U.S. Special Operations Command intends to buy 75 of the AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft by 2029, according to command officials. The Sky Warden is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft specially outfitted to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations and can carry 500 pound to 1,000 pound bombs, .50-caliber machine guns and 20mm cannons, according to its manufacturers. (L3Harris)
The Pentagon could be planning to purchase too many of a new, small aircraft for watching over special operators working in austere locations, a federal watchdog concluded in a new report.
The Government Accountability Office – an independent government agency – recommended the Pentagon slow a more than $2 billion program to purchase armed, overwatch aircraft for U.S. Special Operations Command until defense officials can better determine how many of the two-man planes are needed. SOCOM intends to buy 75 of the AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft by 2029, the command announced last year.
The watchdog was critical of the analysis that SOCOM used to arrive at its 75-plane purchase, writing the command’s own force structure criteria would arrive at a “required fleet size substantially smaller than SOCOM’s planned 75 aircraft.”
Command officials appear to have decided to purchase at least 70 armed, overwatch aircraft roughly two years before completing their own studies, the GAO wrote in the report published Thursday entitled “DOD Should Slow Acquisition of Armed Overwatch Aircraft Until It Conducts Needed Analysis.”
“Special operations forces are supposed to analyze their operational requirements to ensure that purchases like these planes meet mission needs,” GAO wrote in the Congress-directed analysis of the program. “But this analysis wasn’t completed before [the Defense Department] decided to buy the planes. DOD’s special operations mission requirements have also changed in recent years, and it hasn’t evaluated if it still needs all 75 planes.”
The Sky Warden is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft specially outfitted to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations and can carry 500 pound to 1,000 pound bombs and guns from .50-caliber machine guns to 20mm cannons, according to its manufacturers L3 Harris and Air Tractor. The Pentagon last year committed to spending up to $3 billion on the program through fiscal 2029.
The Sky Warden is meant to replace two retiring Air Force Special Operations Command aircraft, the U-28 Draco and MC-12 manned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance planes, according to Special Operations Command. The new aircraft was developed to perform several missions -- primarily close-air support and live ISR collection in support of troops below -- with a single aircraft that previously required multiple airframes. AFSOC officials have said the platform would be most useful in supporting special operators on missions where they do not face a threat from the sky, such as in Africa where operators help battle violent extremist groups.
To date, SOCOM has purchased 16 of the aircraft and plans to buy another 12 by April, according to the GAO.
Congress ordered the GAO assessment of the armed, overwatch aircraft in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual Pentagon policy and spending priorities bill, after lawmakers expressed skepticism about the program’s size. A second GAO report on the program, which will look at the capabilities armed, overwatch aircraft can provide the military, is expected to be published next year, the watchdog wrote.
Pentagon officials agreed to conduct new analysis on the force structure and aircraft requirements for the armed overwatch program, the GAO said. They partially agreed with a second GAO recommendation to slow the purchasing of Sky Wardens beginning in 2025 to the minimum possible rate that the manufacturers need to warrant keeping their production lines open, according to the watchdog. GAO recommended the Pentagon remain at the low rate until the final force structure analysis is completed.
Pentagon officials said they might continue the program at pace until SOCOM has enough aircraft to train new aircrew effectively on the Sky Warden. GAO officials wrote setting up that training pipeline was “an essential part of the development” of the program, but SOCOM needed to be certain how many aircraft that it would need in the future to best set up its training program.
dickstein.corey@stripes.com
Twitter: @CDicksteinDC
