L3 Harris Receives $3B to Provide 75 Aircraft for the Pentagon's Irregular Warfare Ops Program

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has selected L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor, Inc.’s AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft system to be used in irregular warfare operations as part o the SOCOM's Armed Overwatch program.

The program includes delivery of up to 75 manned, fixed wing aircraft, with an initial program contract award of $170 million and a cost ceiling of $3 billion, an announcement from L3 Harris said.
The fleet of this propeller-driven aircraft will address SOCOM’s need for close air support, precision strike, armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), strike coordination and forward air controller requirements for use in austere and permissive environments.
Said Christopher E. Kubasik, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, L3Harris. “We want to deliver game-changing, modular solutions to U.S. special operators for their hardest missions, and Sky Warden does just that.”
L3Harris expects to rapidly modify last summer’s Armed Overwatch prototype demonstrator into the production configuration and provide for customer weapon system testing in approximately six months.
Production of new, fully-modified, Armed Overwatch mission-configured aircraft will begin in 2023 at L3Harris’ Tulsa, Okla. modification center, following initial production at Air Tractor’s Olney, Texas aircraft manufacturing facility. Six new aircraft will be delivered under the low-rate initial production Lot 1.
Other contenders included Leidos’ Bronco II, MAG Aerospace’s MC-208 Guardian, Textron Aviation Defense’s AT-6E Wolverine, and Sierra Nevada Corp.’s MC-145B Wily Coyote. The AT-802U Sky Warden replace the Air Force’s U-28 Draco fleet.