L3 Communications Integrated Systems awarded USD 3 Bn contract in support of Armed Overwatch of US Special Operations Command.

The U.S. Department of Defense on August 1 announced that L3 Communications Integrated Systems, Greenville, Texas, was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract in the amount of $3,000,000,000 (maximum ceiling value) in support of Armed Overwatch. Research, development, test, and evaluation; and procurement funds in the amount of $170,000,000 were obligated at the time of the award.

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US SOCOM is planning for L3Harris' Sky Warden, as AFSOC’s Armed Overwatch plane, to be able to provide close air support, precision strike and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for counterterrorism operations and irregular warfare (Picture source: L3Harris)

This means that it has selected the AT-802U Sky Warden, made by L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor, for its Armed Overwatch program for which it will provide Special Operations Forces with deployable, affordable, and sustainable crewed aircraft systems fulfilling close air support, precision strike, and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, requirements in austere and permissive environments for use in irregular warfare operations in support of the National Defense Strategy.

The contract will be a mixture of firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, time and materials, and cost reimbursement no-fee for the procurement of up to 75 aircraft, training systems, mission planning systems, support equipment, spares, and logistics support, with a period of performance from July 2022 to July 2029, including all options. The majority of the work will be done in Greenville, Texas. This action is a follow-on production contract in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 4022(f) authorized or required by statute. U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. (Awarded July 31, 2022)

Air Tractor is an aircraft manufacturer from Olney, Texas, that typically makes firefighting aircraft and agricultural planes such as crop dusters, MTech News writes. Initial production of the Sky Warden will take place at Air Tractor’s facility in Olney. L3Harris will then modify those planes into the Armed Overwatch mission configuration at its Tulsa, Oklahoma modification center, beginning in 2023. L3Harris said work will also take place at its other sites in Greenville, Rockwall and Waco, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee.

Air Force Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch program aims to build a fleet of up to 75 flexible, fixed-wing aircraft suitable for deployment to austere locations, with little logistical tail needed to keep them operating, MTech News comments. SOCOM is planning for the single-engine Sky Warden, as AFSOC’s Armed Overwatch plane, to be able to provide close air support, precision strike and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for counterterrorism operations and irregular warfare. AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Jim Slife said in 2021 he hopes Armed Overwatch aircraft will be suited to pressure extremist groups in places like Africa, in which the airspace is essentially uncontested.