American Special Forces have designated the AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft for air support

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has designated the AT-802U Sky Warden for its Armed Overwatch program.

L3Harris Technologies reported this on Monday.

Award of the Indefinite Quantity, Indefinite Delivery contract includes a cost ceiling of $3 billion. The initial program contract award was $170 million.

The agreement will be implemented by L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor.

The Sky Warden aircraft will initially be produced at the manufacturer Air Tractor’s facility in Olney.

L3Harris expects to modify the Armed Overwatch prototype demonstrator into the production configuration. Production of new, fully-modified, Armed Overwatch mission-configured aircraft will begin in 2023 at L3Harris’ Tulsa, Oklahoma, modification center.

The U.S. Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch program aims to create a fleet of 75 versatile aircraft suitable for deployment in austere environments with low logistical costs required to operate them.

The production-ready Sky Warden system is tailorable to a variety of mission requirements to meet the U.S. mission needs.

USSOCOM plans that the single-engine Sky Warden will bring powerful and affordable close air support and precision strikes, and will be able to adjust the fire of other weapons.

The AT-802U will be involved in surveillance and reconnaissance missions for the anti-terrorist operations and irregular warfare operations.

The U.S. military states that the aircraft would be low priced, able to take off and land in harsh operating conditions, fly for extended periods of time, and have a variety of modular payloads for different missions.

The Sky Warden is based on the rugged and powerful AT-802 Air Tractor, which has the largest payload capacity of any single-engine turboprop aircraft. It houses the L3Harris family of communication, sensor, and onboard solutions.