L3Harris Technologies Corporation announced that, together with Air Tractor, on April 3, 2025, it delivered the first OA-1K Skyraider II reconnaissance and attack turboprop aircraft ordered under the 2022 contract to the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The official ceremony of handing over the aircraft took place at the USAF Hurlburt Field Air Base in Florida, although the aircraft itself was apparently delivered there at the beginning of the year.
Official photo of the new American reconnaissance and attack turboprop aircraft L3Harris Technologies / Air Tractor OA-1K Skyraider II (c) of the US Air Force
The transferred OA-1K aircraft will become part of the 17th Special Operations Squadron of the 492nd AFSOC Special Operations Wing, which is to be permanently deployed at Will Rogers Air Force Base of the Oklahoma Air National Guard (the 492nd Wing control is stationed at Hurlburt Field). The 17th Squadron is supposed to be a training squadron for the training of personnel of OA-1K aircraft. Earlier in June 2024, the 17th Squadron had already received two unarmed prototype OA-1K aircraft at Hurlburt Field for use as training aircraft. Deliveries of several more OA-1K aircraft to the 17th Squadron are planned this year.
The OA-1K Skyraider II is the official military designation of the AT-802U Sky Warden reconnaissance and attack aircraft developed jointly by L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor, which is a new version of the already well-known Air Tractor AT-802U military aircraft based on the AT-802 agricultural aircraft. On February 27, 2025, the US Air Force assigned the aircraft the official name Skyraider II in honor of the famous Douglas A-1 Skyraider piston attack aircraft, which was in service in the 1940s and 1960s.
On August 1, 2022, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) selected the AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft jointly presented by L3Harris and Air Tractor for purchase for AFSOC as part of its Armed Overwatch program. L3Harris, as the lead contractor, received a USSOCOM framework contract worth $ 3 billion for a formally unspecified number of AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft (in fact, apparently covering the purchase of 75 initially planned aircraft), with deliveries completed in 2029, including a firm contract worth $170 million for the supply of six aircraft the first series (Lot 1) - the first of which has now been delivered by AFSOC. However, the Armed Overwatch program is currently in limbo due to dramatic changes in both the global situation and U.S. defense policy. In 2023, it was reported that plans for the purchase of OA-1K aircraft had already been provisionally reduced from 75 to 62 units, and it can be assumed that the actual number of purchased aircraft will be even smaller.
The USSOCOM Armed Overwatch program, announced in early 2020, required the purchase of 75 aircraft for use in "unconventional" combat operations. Such an aircraft, according to the requirements, must provide direct air support, pinpoint strikes, "armed reconnaissance", reconnaissance and surveillance, strike coordination and advanced aviation guidance. At the same time, such an aircraft should provide support primarily to small groups of special operations forces, rather than "mass troops," and its use was attributed to AFSOC.
Although up to 50 companies with a wide variety of proposals initially announced their participation in the Armed Overwatch competition, however, in May 2021, USSOCOM selected five applicants, awarding the companies that submitted them contracts totaling $19.1 million for the manufacture of one prototype demonstrator each. These were the proposals of Leidos / Paramount USA / Vertex Aerospace Bronco II (based on the AHRLAC turboprop aircraft of the South African Paramount group), MAG Aerospace MC-208 Guardian (based on the Cessna 208B Caravan aircraft), Beechcraft AT-6E Wolverine (a variant of the T-6 Texan II turboprop trainer aircraft), Sierra Nevada Corporation MC-145B Wily Coyote (a variant of the Polish twin-engine turboprop light transport aircraft PZL M28) and turboprop reconnaissance and attack aircraft L3Harris / Air Tractor AT-802U Sky Warden. In October 2021, the Bronco II and MC-208 Guardian dropped out of the final stage, and as a result, the AT-802U Sky Warden was selected in 2022, now officially designated OA-1K Skyraider II.
The AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft was developed by L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor specifically for participation in the Armed Overwatch program and its demonstration prototype was presented in May 2021. L3Harris provides optoelectronic equipment and communication systems for the aircraft and is responsible for the overall integration. Production of the aircraft in serial configuration is carried out at the Air Tractor plant in Olney (Texas), after which they are retrofitted with avionics at the L3Harris production center in Tulsa (Oklahoma).
By itself, the OA-1K Skyraider II (AT-802U Sky Warden) aircraft is a development of a fairly long line of reconnaissance, strike and counterinsurgency aircraft based on the popular AT-802 turboprop agricultural aircraft from Air Tractor. The first model of the Air Tractor AT-802U anti-aircraft (in Block 1 and 2 versions) was developed in the 2000s by Air Tractor in partnership with the American company Iomax, which was responsible for the creation of a complex of weapons and electronic equipment. Under a number of contracts concluded since 2009, AT-802U aircraft were supplied to the UAE (38 aircraft, later all of them were transferred by the Emirates to Egypt, Jordan and the forces of Libyan Field Marshal Haftar).
However, Air Tractor and Iomax later came into conflict, and after 2013, Iomax developed its own version of the Rangel Border Patrol Aircraft (BPA) Block 3 reconnaissance and attack aircraft based on the Thrush 710P turboprop aircraft competing with Air Tractor from agricultural aircraft manufacturer Thrush Aircraft from Albany (Georgia), delivering 24 of these aircraft (also referred to as Thrush S2R-T660) for the same UAE. Iomax also upgraded the Emirates AT-802U Block 1/2 aircraft to the AT-802i Block 4 variant.
In turn, Air Tractor, in order to continue implementing combat variants of the AT-802, turned to L-3 Communications Corporation (now L3Harris), which developed its own complex of weapons and electronic means for this machine, with which the aircraft was marketed as the AT-802L Longsword. The United States planned to supply AT-802L aircraft under military assistance programs to friendly regimes (in particular, their deliveries were planned to Kenya and Yemen), but for political reasons this was not implemented, and only four AT-802L aircraft already manufactured for Yemen were eventually transferred to Jordan in 2017. The AT-802U Sky Warden (OA-1K Skyraider II) aircraft, which is now being purchased by the US Air Force, became a further development of the AT-802L for USSOCOM.
Official photos of the new American reconnaissance and attack turboprop aircraft L3Harris Technologies / Air Tractor OA-1K Skyraider II (c) of the US Air Force
The head of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), Lieutenant General Michael Conley, in the cockpit of the first AFSOC-received L3Harris Technologies / Air Tractor OA-1K Skyraider II turboprop reconnaissance aircraft during a ceremony at Hurlburt Field Air Base (Florida), 04/03/2025 (c) Natalie Fiorilli / United States Air Force
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