공격기 SOCOM, Armed Overwatch 프로그램 항공기(OA-1K) 구매 대수를 75대에서 62대로 감축

[위종민]

https://cafe.daum.net/NTDS/515G/3849

미 SOCOM, AT-802U 스카이 워든을 저비용 감시/공격기로 선정

22년 8월 L3해리스의 AT-802U가 선정됐었는데 예산부족으로 구매대수가 75기에서 62기로 줄었습니다. 형식명칭은 OA-1K로 지정된 모양입니다. 

2025년 12기(당초 15기), 2026년 11기 (당초 17기), 2027년 11기 (당초 15기) 조달 예정입니다. IOC는 2026년, FOC는 2029년 달성 예정입니다. 구매대수 감축으로 사업예산도 11억 달러에서 8억 1,050만 달러로 3억 달러 가량 줄었다고 하고, 단가는 기당 2,380만 달러네요. 1번기 인도는 2023년 10월에서 2024년 6월로 연기됐습니다. 

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/socom-cuts-armed-overwatch-buy-from-75-to-62-aircraft/

U.S. Special Operations Command has selected the AT-802U Sky Warden, developed by L3 Harris Communications and Air Tractor, for SOCOM's Armed Overwatch program. L3 Harris photo.

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SOCOM Cuts Armed Overwatch Buy from 75 to 62 Aircraft

March 19, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

A limited budget has led U.S. Special Operations Command to cut back on its planned purchase of Armed Overwatch, the rugged, lightweight, fixed-wing aircraft to support counterterrorism efforts in permissive airspace—at least for the rest of the decade.

The combatant command is trimming its planned purchases over the next five years of the Air Tractor-produced, L3Harris-modified OA-1K from 75 airframes to 62, according to SOCOM’s 2025 budget request released earlier this month. The 13-aircraft reduction marks a 17 percent cut. By year, the cuts are: 

• 2025: From 15 to 12 aircraft 
• 2026: From 17 to 11 aircraft 
• 2027: From 15 to 11 aircraft 

The cut in fiscal 2025 is “due to resource constraints,” the budget notes, and a Special Operations Command (SOCOM) spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine the same issue was at play in the ’26 and ’27 decisions. The spokesperson added that the program requirement remains 75 aircraft, but it is not clear if or when SOCOM will be able to buy the additional aircraft.

The program came under scrutiny in late 2023 when the Government Accountability Office released a report suggesting SOCOM failed to fully justify its order for 75 OA-1Ks and urged the Pentagon to slow down the program until SOCOM makes a better business case for so many planes. 

At the time, the Pentagon responded that it was analyzing its plans for the Armed Overwatch force structure. But the SOCOM spokesperson said the GAO report did not cause the command to cut its planned purchase.

“SOCOM’s FY25 budget request for Armed Overwatch is a resource-constrained position and is not a response to the GAO’s recommendations on the program,” the spokesperson said. “SOCOM is committed to addressing the GAO’s recommendation to review the Armed Overwatch force structure requirement and will complete that analysis prior to the next President’s budget request.”

While SOCOM is cutting back on its planned purchases, it is also pushing back on full-rate production for the aircraft, which is based on Air Tractor’s AT-802U Sky Warden. Previously, full-rate production was scheduled to begin in the second quarter of fiscal 2025. That timeline has been delayed a year. 

Initial operational capability is still projected for the end of fiscal 2026, and full operational capability is still expected by the end of fiscal 2029. 

Compared to previous budget projections, SOCOM will save nearly $300 million by buying 13 fewer aircraft—from $1.1 billion to $810.5 million. The average cost per airframe is now set at around $23.8 million. By comparison, the Air Force says a U-28 Draco, one of the aircraft the OA-1K is supposed to replace, costs $16.5 million each.

Air Force and SOCOM leaders have said they want Armed Overwatch to “collapse the stack”—reducing the number of different intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, light attack, and close air support aircraft it needs for counterinsurgency operations where the airspace is uncontested but the environment can be austere. 

“Our methodology for supporting our forces on the ground over the last several decades has really boiled down to the development of what we call an ‘air stack’ over objective areas,” former AFSOC commander and current Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife told Congress in April 2022. “And so you’ll typically have single-role specialized platforms—AC-130s, A-10s, MQ-9s, U-28s—you have a stack of airplanes over an objective, each platform providing a niche capability to the force on the ground. That averages, in terms of cost per flying hour, over $150,000 an hour … to generate kind of the typical stack for that.” 

The Air Force pursued the idea of combining many of those capabilities into one aircraft through its Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) program starting in 2009, but the program eventually fell prey to budget cuts and congressional opposition. SOCOM took the lead in launching Armed Overwatch, which Slife has estimated will cost “something less than $10,000” per flying hour. 

The Sky Warden that the OA-1K is based on is typically used as a crop duster and firefighter, but L3Harris is heavily modifying it and making it modular—capable of swapping out different sensors, communications equipment, and combat payloads as needed. SOCOM plans to invest several million dollars every year for the next five years in research and development for the program, “capitalizing on Armed Overwatch’s modular and open architecture to rapidly reconfigure platform capability tailored to support Special Operations ground force needs.” 

The first aircraft was scheduled to be delivered in October 2023, but budget documents indicate that has been delayed until June 2024. 

In the meantime, the Air Force has started making plans for OA-1K. The service is set to get rid of its small fleets of Textron’s AT-6s and Sierra Nevada Corp.’s A-29s that it bought as part of the LAAR program, and it wants to start retiring MC-12 Liberty aircraft in fiscal 2025. It also selected Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, Okla., to host the formal training unit for the OA-1K. 

[백선호]

위험하지 않으면서 조종사가 현장에서 바로 판단을 해야 하는 그런 곳에서나 쓰이겠죠?

[위종민]

네 특수부대들이 활동해야 하는 제3세계의 그런 환경에서 현재는 MQ-9, A-10, U-28, AC-130 등 잡다한 단일임무 기체들이 작전지역 공역에 CAS, 경공격, ISR 등등 다양한 기능을 제공했는데(air stack이라고 표현하네요) 저 기체들을 하나로 통합해 운용비를 줄이려는 게 목적인 것 같습니다. 이 기체들 운용비용이 시간당 평균 15만 달러가 들었다고 하네요.

[위종민]

Air Force and SOCOM leaders have said they want Armed Overwatch to “collapse the stack”—reducing the number of different intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, light attack, and close air support aircraft it needs for counterinsurgency operations where the airspace is uncontested but the environment can be austere.

[위종민]

“Our methodology for supporting our forces on the ground over the last several decades has really boiled down to the development of what we call an ‘air stack’ over objective areas,”

“And so you’ll typically have single-role specialized platforms—AC-130s, A-10s, MQ-9s, U-28s—you have a stack of airplanes over an objective, each platform providing a niche capability to the force on the ground. That averages, in terms of cost per flying hour, over $150,000 an hour