Up to 75 Aircraft to be Delivered

The Sky Warden system, developed by L3 Harris and airframer Air Tractor Inc., has been selected by the United States Special Operations Command for its Armed Overwatch programme.

Sky Warden combines an L3Harris ISR mission system with Air Tractor’s AT-802 airframe. The multi-mission aircraft fleet “will address SOCOM’s need for a deployable, sustainable single-engine fixed-wing, crewed and affordable aircraft system,” L3 Harris announced. “It will provide close air support, precision strike, armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, strike coordination and forward air controller requirements for use in austere and permissive environments.”

The contract is structured as an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery vehicle with an initial spent of $170 million and a cost ceiling of $3 billion. L3Harris says it “expects to rapidly modify” the prototype demonstrator built for the Armed Overwatch competition and use that as the baseline for the production configuration. Tests of the first production-standard model will begin within six months. Production is expected to begin next year and six aircraft will be included in the first low-rate production lot.

“The Sky Warden design reflects our commitment to America’s national security and the AT-802U will be equipped with everything we’ve learned manufacturing aircraft over the past 46 years,” Jim Hirsch, Air Tractor’s President, said. “The L3Harris team is an excellent partner, and our production and engineering staff are ready to immediately deliver this world-class product to our nation’s special forces.”