Plans To Axe Special Operations Surveillance Planes Come Under The Microscope
Joseph Trevithick
September 27, 2024·7 min read
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.
“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://news.yahoo.com/news/plans-axe-special-operations-surveillance-192257495.html
