Pushing for New ‘Armed Overwatch’ Aircraft

[Rusty]

    https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/4/16/socom-keeps-pushing-for-new-armed-overwatch-aircraft

TLDR  synopsis.

Bean counters retired all of the planes with high loiter time and lower tech maintenance. Service branches want their  shiny new high high high tech toys and agree to it.

Now troops are dying since they have no over watch.  Seems the high tech toys need fancy runways and extreme maintenance facilities. Add in guzzling fuel and you have the exact opposite of what SOCOM needs.

Here are the sales brochures for the ones they are considering.

Leidos Inc's Bronco II  https://www.bronco-usa.com/bronco-ii/p/1

MAG Aerospace's MC-208 Guardian   http://mc208guardian.com

Textron Aviation Defense's AT-6E Wolverine  https://defense.txtav.com/en/at-6

Sierra Nevada Corps MC-145B Wiley Coyote

  Note Video is for Combat Coyote version.


L3 Communications Integrated Systems  AT-802U Sky Warden

https://l3harris.com/all-capabilities/skywarden

[DeadNutz]

Thanks for posting that Rusty and I will check them out. I know that the Navy was extremely pleased with the job two OV-10 Broncos did in Syria a couple of years ago supporting the special forces. They said that they wished they still had them in inventory. They had borrowed two from the State Department and upgraded them.

[Rusty]

The Bronco II amuses me. The triangle area under the crew is swappable. Depending on mission you use a different module.