SOCOM Halves OA-1K Armed Overwatch Buy for 2026

U.S. Special Operations Command is once again slowing its purchases of the new OA-1K Skyraider II multipurpose counterinsurgency plane, as the Pentagon pivots its budget to prepare for a high-end conflict following two decades of wars in the Middle East, officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The command is planning on cutting its fiscal 2026 buy by half, from 12 aircraft to just six. That move follows on a cut in fiscal 2025, from 15 to 12.

The new Air Tractor-based scout planes are designed to conduct light attack, close air support, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

“OA-1K aircraft procurement has been reduced due to resource constraints,” U.S. Special Operations Command spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Kassie Collins told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The move marks another blow for Armed Overwatch program, which emerged after previous experiments to field a new light attack aircraft for the U.S. military over the past decade floundered.

SOCOM, however, says the program of record—the official requirement for the fleet size—remains 75 aircraft, despite signs over the past few years that the Defense Department wants to scale back the program.

In 2022, SOCOM selected the Sky Warden—an AT-802U cropduster modified for military use by L3Harris—as the winner of the Armed Overwatch program.

The requirement then, as now, was for 75 aircraft, but in the fiscal 2025 budget request, the combatant command detailed plans to cut its purchases over the next several years from 75 down to 62 aircraft. The command also cited money constraints for that move.

According to budget documents, the 2026 buy of six aircraft will result in 45 planes on contract, with deliveries extending into 2028. The command has not detailed future spending plans for fiscal 2027 and beyond.

The OA-1K is designed to replace the U-28 Draco, a modified Pilatus propeller plane, and the MC-12W Liberty, another turboprop, a modified Beachcraft—both of which are used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to support special operations missions. While procured by SOCOM, the new aircraft are controlled by Air Force Special Operations Command.

The OA-1K is designed to be modular, allowing for the swapping of different sensors, communications equipment, and combat payloads

AFSOC has only recently accepted the first operational Skyraiders. The aircraft was initially supposed to be delivered in 2023, but the first operational aircraft arrived at Hurlburt Field, Fla., earlier this year after delays in the program. Eight aircraft have been delivered so far, and six more OK-1A are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2025, Collins said.

Despite the cut, Air Force Special Operations Command says demand for its assets is not going away.

“Since 2019, demand for your Air Commandos has surged, in some cases even exceeding the peak levels seen during the Global War on Terror,” AFSOC boss Lt. Gen. Michael Conley told the House Armed Services Committee in February. “We commit almost 100 percent of our forces in each deployment cycle. There’s no excess left. In order to do other things, it means trade-offs for what we’re currently tasked to do.” 

But a government watchdog organization has questioned whether SOCOM’s money—some $2 billion for the Armed Overwatch program—should be devoted to the OK-1A. The Government Accountability Office released a report in December 2023 that suggested the military needs a “substantially smaller” fleet of aircraft and recommended that the Pentagon slow down the program, arguing that SOCOM had not properly analyzed how the shift in the U.S. military’s footprint should affect the fleet size.

“The Pacific is incredibly important to us. … 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,” Conley said in September 2024. Earlier that month, the GAO released a mostly classified report that said SOCOM “still hasn’t completed the justification” for the reduced buy of 62 aircraft.

While Conley has not endorsed the GAO’s findings, he did acknowledge concerns about the relevance of AFSOC’s platforms over time.

“My concern is that by the time we get a fleet of 50 aircraft of any flavor updated to where they need to be, the technology’s already irrelevant,” Conley said in his HASC testimony in February. “So it’s this constant loop of trying to catch up with the enemy threat. We largely overcome that by training our way out of it to the extent we can through … new tactics and procedures, but that’s only a small piece of what we really need as far as advanced modifications.”

So far, the aircraft remains on track to achieve its scheduled initial operating capability by the end of fiscal 2026, according to SOCOM.

“OA-1K government verification testing, operator training, and tactics development are ongoing with these fielded aircraft. The program is on schedule to support Initial Operational Capability and Full Operational Capability for U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command,” Collins said.