Plans To Axe Special Operations Surveillance Planes Come Under The Microscope
Retiring U-28As and MC-12s to help make way for new OA-1K light attack planes may risk creating a major aerial intelligence-gathering gap.
Joseph Trevithick
Posted on Sep 27, 2024 3:22 PM EDT
How U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) expects to fill the capability and capacity gaps that will be created by the planned retirement of U-28A Draco and Beechcraft King Air-based surveillance aircraft is coming under increasing scrutiny. SOCOM and U.S. Air Force officials have repeatedly stressed that while ditching the U-28As and King Airs will free up resources to help field its new OA-1K Sky Warden light attack aircraft, the latter is not a replacement for the former.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, confirmed to The War Zone earlier this week that it is currently conducting a classified review of SOCOM’s decision to divest the U-28As and King Air-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, the latter of which are often referred to collectively as MC-12s. This is separate from GAO’s already extensive and still ongoing assessments of the Armed Overwatch program that led to the OA-1K, a single turboprop-engined light attack aircraft based on the Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster.
The OA-1K Sky Warden. L3Harris
“SOCOM told us that their decisions about Armed Overwatch occurred separate from their decisions to divest of existing aircraft,” a GAO spokesperson told The War Zone. “We are separately conducting a classified assessment of SOCOM’s process for how it decided to divest of ISR aircraft.”
https://www.twz.com/air/plans-to-axe-special-operations-surveillance-planes-come-under-the-microscope
