Key Points and Summary: The U.S. Armed Overwatch Program’s OA-1K Sky Warden, designed for ISR and ground strike missions, faces significant budget cuts. Originally planned for 75 units, SOCOM will now purchase fewer Sky Wardens, reducing the program’s budget by $300 million.
-The Sky Warden provides loitering capability for U.S. Special Forces, ensuring overwatch and strike capabilities in irregular warfare. However, evolving global threats and shifting missions toward great power competition with China and Russia have reprioritized funding.
-Despite reductions, SOCOM will adapt, leveraging limited Sky Warden platforms for counterterrorism and preparing for larger-scale conflicts. Full operational capability is slated for 2029.
U.S. Special Operations ‘Overwatch’ Loitering Airplane Facing Budget Cuts
U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) do not conduct missions without some type of aircraft providing overwatch functions.
Usually, these unmanned and manned aircraft collect intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data to ensure the bad guys are not planning ambushes or other nefarious activity.
After 9/11, U.S. special operators had almost unlimited budgets for their activities, and Congress spared no expense in giving these commandos everything they needed and more.
Cutting the Armed Overwatch Program
But these days, SOF is not immune from budget cuts or austerity. That is what is happening to the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) “Armed Overwatch Program.”
This airplane can conduct ISR missions and deliver ground strikes to better support special operators in combat.
What Is the Sky Warden?
The Armed Overwatch Program uses manned Air Force Special Operations Command airplanes that can take off and fly in lightly contested environments.
The current overwatch airplane is the OA-1K Sky Warden.
This single-engine, twin-seater can protect forces and blast the enemy.
The Sky Warden replaces the U-28 Draco. The OA-1K platform was originally designed for counter-narcotics, fighting fires, and dealing with natural disasters.
SOCOM thought its six-hour loitering capability would be perfect for overwatch and ground strikes with the ability to toggle missions from ISR collection to blowing up enemy positions.
Reducing the Procurement Plan Levels
The Air Force Special Operations Command had planned to spend $2.2 billion on 75 Sky Wardens. So far, SOCOM and the Air Force have procured 16 Sky Wardens as of 2024.
They plan to acquire 12 more in 2025 instead of 15. In 2026, Sky Wardens will be cut from 17 to 11 airplanes and in 2027, there will be only 11 airplanes instead of 15 purchased.
“SOCOM will save nearly $300 million by buying 13 fewer aircraft—from $1.1 billion to $810.5 million. The average cost per airframe is now set at around $15.4 million, not counting non-recurring costs like initial spares and support equipment. By comparison, the Air Force says a U-28 Draco, one of the aircraft the OA-1K is supposed to replace, costs $16.5 million each,” according to Air and Space Forces.
Full-rate production on the Sky Warden will not happen this year and is being pushed to FY 2026. Full operational capability is scheduled for the end of FY 2029.
The Air Force special operations brass hopes the Sky Wardens have minimal maintenance and can operate in difficult weather. The Sky Warden needs to solve logistics problems before they deploy.
This Airplane Is Valuable in Combat
Sky Wardens will allow special operators to monitor the enemy while the airplane loiters over enemy positions. SOF can then call in airstrikes from a dedicated platform to punish the enemy. Sky Wardens will be utilized in irregular warfare to engage terrorists and insurgents.
This has been the mission for the last 20-plus years during the Global War on Terror. But threats are evolving, and special operators are returning to their original missions. The Army Special Forces will be in the business of training and advising indigenous forces instead of direct-action attacks on terrorists and insurgents.
Meanwhile, Navy SEALS will focus more on maritime operations than land warfare.
While SOF has been deployed to Iraq and Syria to combat ISIS, they must also prepare for conventional conflict with great powers such as China and Russia. There are special operators deployed to Taiwan preparing for a possible attack from Xi Jinping’s forces that places the island in jeopardy.
Changing Threats and Different Missions
This change in mission sets, the evolving global threat environment, and geopolitical developments make for different budget priorities. Thus, Sky Wardens are being reduced. They are still important pieces of military hardware. Still, since the counter-terror and counter-insurgency mission in Iraq and Afghanistan is not needed as much as it was during the Global War on Terror, some SOF budgets will undergo a re-evaluation and shift toward tightened funding.
With the Sky Warden program cuts, SOCOM must come to terms with budget constraints.
Unlimited spending is over, and special operators must do more with less. They will still have Sky Wardens, just not as many as planned.
This will still allow SOCOM to be highly relevant in the coming years, they may not be fighting small irregular wars in the Middle East and South Asia and must prepare to dominate a large, conventional force.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.

R. B. P.
January 22, 2025 at 7:12 pm
I was in the 1st SOW at Hurlburt Field, and in Operation Eagle Claw. FARPs existed before tgen, but it was after that mission, and due to losses precipitated by the accident with the bladder bird, that we very much changed how we ran them. But FARPs were not invented because if it.