공격기 OA-1K Armed Overwatch 공격기의 새로운 용도를 탐색중인 미공군 특수작전령부

[위종민]

2022년 8월 L3해리스의 AT-802U 스카이 워든을 U-28 드라코와 MC-12W 리버티를 대체할 경공격기로 선정했었죠. ( When Computers Went To Sea | 미 SOCOM, AT-802U 스카이 워든을 저비용 감시/공격기로 선정 - Daum 카페 ) 

현대 군용기 개발 사업이 다 그렇듯 애초 75대였던 조달대수가 올해 초 62대로 삭감되고 2023년 10월 인도 예정이었던 1번기 인도 일정도 2025년 1분기(calendar year)로 밀렸네요. 

미공군이 태평양에서의 활동에 중점을 두면서 (넓디 넓은 태평양에서) 단발 프롭기인 OA-1K를 뭐에다 쓸 건데? 라는 당연한 질문이 제기됨에 따라, 미공군은 태평양 말고 다른 곳에서도 작전을 할 것이고 비용효율적인 CAS 플랫폼이라는 본연의 역할 외에 도입되고 나면 뭔가 다른 쓸모를 찾을 수 있을 것이라고 항공기 도입 계획을 방어하고 있네요. 62대로 칼질되긴 했지만 여전히 AFSOC는 75대 도입안을 지지하고 있다고 합니다. 

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/afsoc-new-uses-armed-overwatch-scrutiny-delays

Air Force Special Operations Command received two AT-802U trainer aircraft at Hurlburt Field, Florida on June 28, 2024. These aircraft will be used to train test pilots and initial cadre in a representative tail wheel aircraft in preparation for the missionized Armed Overwatch (OA-1K) variant.

Expand Photo

Share Article

AFSOC Boss Sees New Uses for Light Armed Overwatch Planes

Sept. 20, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Special Operations Command will find ways to use the OA-1K Armed Overwatch plane, said AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Michael E. Conley, setting aside questions about the fleet’s size and utility in a changing strategic environment. 

The first operational aircraft will be delivered to AFSOC within months, but the world into which the command will welcome its militarized propeller-driven Air Tractors is markedly different from that of even a few years back, when the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command developed the requirements for a manned, lightweight, low-cost combat scout craft to do light attack, close air support, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for counterinsurgency missions, replacing the U-28 Draco and the MC-12W Liberty. 

SOCOM selected Sky Warden—an Air Tractor AT-802U cropduster modified for military use by L3Harris —in August 2022 with plans to buy 75 aircraft, but that plan was cut back to 62 aircraft earlier this year.

Delays followed. The first production aircraft was supposed to be delivered in October 2023, but Conley said Sept. 18 that he is now anticipating delivery in “the first quarter of [calendar year] ’25.”  

“I think all new technology, new airframes, there’s always a little bit of a delay, they learn as they go,” Conley told reporters. He added that he’s seen “nothing that has me concerned with cost or delays,” beyond the lack of operational aircraft. “Once I have that, I’ll be more comfortable,” he said. 

Pilots are familiarizing themselves now with a pair of standard issue Air Tractor 802Us at Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, Okla., Conley said. Those aircraft have none of the modifications L3Harris is installing on the Air Force planes, AFSOC confirmed. 

As the Air Force gears up for peer competition in the Pacific, some have questioned the need for Armed Overwatch in that part of the world, but Conley suggested AFSOC will be inventive in applying the asset to all manner of scenarios.

“Once we get the aircraft and we start flying it, our crew members and our maintainers will figure out novel ways that it will be relevant in the future fight as well as the current one,” Conley said. “I tell my team every day, the Pacific is incredibly important to us for all the reasons [Secretary Frank Kendall] has said: China, China, China. We get it. But we’ve also got the rest-of-the-world mission that I’m responsible for, as well, and I want to have all the cards I can play to fight wherever they need us to.” 

Just as AFSOC injected new applicability into the venerable C-130 by converting the cargo carriers into gunships like the AC-130, Conley sees an adaptable future ahead for the Air Tractors. 

“I think it still provides a cost-effective close air support platform, which is one of the missions that it was designed for,” he said. “It’s still going to provide an ISR capability. But as we move forward, I think there’s opportunity to look at it against novel mission sets.” 

That could include signals and electronic intelligence, Conley suggested, as well as crisis response, provided AFSOC can find a way to rapidly dismantle, transport, and reassemble the aircraft. 

“What I’m telling industry right now is I need them to give me operational aircraft on time and on cost, and then the pathfinding mindset of folks at AFSOC will figure out what to do with it moving forward again,” he said. 

Conley faces renewed scrutiny of the program after the General Accountability Office issued a new, mostly classified report Sept. 5 reiterating concerns first expressed in December 2023 that SOCOM failed to justify the need for 75 planes and urged the Pentagon to slow down purchases until the command completed a comprehensive analysis.

SOCOM’s decision to cut the buy to 62 aircraft was disclosed in the president’s 2025 budget request, the result of “resource constraints” rather than a broader change in plans, the command said at the time. Conley said this month that he still supports a fleet of 75 OA-1K aircraft, justified by the intended mission set and unstated potential future uses.

“It is possible that we don’t buy those 75 in the same time frame that we wanted to,” he said. “But that’s still our requirement.”

[ssn688]

저가/저속 장거리드론으로부터 후방시설을 지키는 요격기라면???
http://www.platoon.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=1370

[위종민]

저 기체가 쓰일 MENA나 사하라 이남 아프리카, 남아메리카 같은 곳에서도 드론이 일상적으로 쓰일 테니 이런 기체가 드론 사냥 용도로 유용할 수도 있겠습니다.

근데 체공시간 긴 중대형 UAV에 기총-기관포 달고 300피트 이하에서 잡히는 표적은 다 잡아버리도록 자동교전하게 지시하는 게 더 유용할 것 같기도 하고... ㅎㅎ

요즘 오물풍선으로 시끌시끌한데 저 정도 기체는 충분히 한국에서도 제작 가능할 것 같은데 가만 지켜보고만 있네요.

[ssn688]

이번 달 플래툰지에서 KA-1의 활용방안에 대한 비판이 실려있는데, 막상 KA-1의 경우에도 가용한 50구경 건포드조차도 빗나간 탄약의 대민피해를 우려해서 못 쓸 지경이라고 합니다. 그래서 위력이 낮은 7.62mm에다가 공중폭발탄? 작약탄?이라는 괴랄한 소요가 생기고 있다 하네요. 차라리 후방 덮개 열고 경기관총 거치한 다음, 풍선보다 낮게/내륙 방향에서 지나가면서 상향 사격하는 게 나을지도 모르겠네요.