The US Air Force has revealed the name of its newest combat aircraft, as the type is poised to begin service.
The service on 27 February said the close air support turboprop being delivered by L3Harris will be known as the “Skyraider II”, hearkening to the single-seat Douglas A-1 Skyraider light-attack platform that served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Officially designated the OA-1K, the Skyraider II is based on the Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster. L3Harris is the systems integrator and prime contractor for the new aircraft, which is designed to provide special operations troops with light-attack and reconnaissance support.
The aircraft was developed under US Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) Armed Overwatch programme and will be operated by pilots with the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), which provides rotary- and fixed-wing aviation support to the Pentagon’s commando forces – often in far flung, austere locales.
“AFSOC has enduring global missions,” says Brigadier General Craig Prather, AFSOC’s director of strategic plans, programmes and requirements. “While we don’t expect the Skyraider II to go mix it up with fifth- and sixth-generation fighters, it will provide value to our supported forces globally.”
In January, L3Harris told FlightGlobal it had two OA-1K test assets flying from Waco, Texas as part of the effort to secure supplemental type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The company’s president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance Jason Lambert said a production line in Tulsa, Oklahoma is assembling operationally-configured aircraft, the first of which L3Harris expects to deliver in the early part of 2025.
AFSOC now confirms it expects the first operational OA-1K to arrive at Hurlburt Field in the coming weeks. Two non-militarised AT-802s were delivered to the air force in 2024 for pilot familiarisation.
Current plans call for a fleet of 62 aircraft – a reduction from the original requirement of 75 OA-1Ks, which had been the subject of scrutiny in a 2023 review of the Armed Overwatch programme by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
SOCOM has also received criticism for its choice of a turboprop in the era of precision-guided anti-air missiles, which have proven highly effective against Russian rotorcraft flying low-altitude close air support missions in Ukraine.
Auditors at the GAO also noted that the Armed Overwatch programme’s requirements were developed prior to the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan – a conflict with minimal anti-air threat and a regular need to provide ground forces with fire support in rugged and remote terrain.
However, even as the Pentagon has reoriented toward high-end conflicts with so-called “near peer” adversaries like Russia and China, special operations leaders have affirmed their need for a simple, rugged combat platform that can operate in lower-threat environments without the complex support infrastructure required by modern jet fighters.
“Providing scalable and precision effects is where the Skyraider II will come in,” says Prather. “The Skyraider II could take on missions from the southwest [US-Mexico] border to Africa and create dilemmas to those we are in competition with,” he adds, seemingly referencing the presence of Russian mercenary groups in that continent.
The fielding of the new OA-1K also comes as the air force moves to retire an ageing titan of the close air support mission set – the Fairchild Republic A-10.
Although air force brass have long sought to phase out A-10s and redirect that aircraft’s funding toward procuring more modern aircraft, elected lawmakers in Congress blocked that goal for years. Congress finally relented in 2022 with approval for a modest round of initial A-10 retirements, which began in 2023.
Legislators approved further reductions to the A-10 fleet in the USA’s 2024 defence budget, with retirement of jets deployed in the Indo-Pacific region now ongoing.
Defenders of the A-10 have long fought back against the retirement effort, arguing the durable ground-attack platform offers unique capabilities not replicated by high-end strike fighters like the Lockheed Martin F-35 or F-16.
“Every time there’s a conflict, the A-10 proves itself, but then after the end of the conflict we talk about getting rid of the airplane again,” decorated and now retired A-10 pilot Colonel Kim Campbell told FlightGlobal in 2023.
Now, AFSOC appears to be taking a similar stance with the OA-1K, positioning it as a flexible platform able to fill niches less suited to expensive and complex fighter jets.
“I am excited about the Skyraider II,” says AFSOC commander Lieutenant General Michael Conley. “We are going to have the ability to shape that into something that the rest of the nation might not even know they need right now.”
L3Harris is already looking to expand the capabilities of the OA-1K beyond its original light-attack and reconnaissance roles. That effort includes the possible addition of signals-intelligence-collection sensors and electronic-warfare systems.
These would add to the aircraft’s existing payload of precision air-to-ground missiles, laser-guided rockets, joint direct-attack munition-guided bombs and onboard electro-optical/infra-red sensors.
L3Harris has experimented with the concept of the OA-1K as a rapidly deployable, crisis-response aircraft, demonstrating the turboprop can be partially disassembled in as little as 6h for transport via cargo aircraft.
“We take the wings off, we package it in the back of a [Boeing] C-17 and we can deploy it anywhere worldwide,” Lambert told FlightGlobal in September.
In a January, he also revealed that the company has experienced “huge interest” for the new aircraft internationally. At that time, Lambert said L3Harris had received export approval for the type from the US Department of State for 22 potential overseas buyers, with another 15 countries being reviewed.
The company’s 2022 deal with SOCOM under the Armed Overwatch contract is worth up to $3 billion.
