“Skyraider Reborn: The OA-1K and the Future of Armed Overwatch”

Watch the interview with Buck Walker in full here:

It's more than just a photograph: it's a declaration of intent. The rugged tail-dragger aircraft roars along the Florida coastline, trailing the waters just off Hurlburt Field. In the background, Air Force gunships and transports sit idle as this improbable newcomer - bulky, bristling with sensor turrets and armaments - slices past the headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

“That was my idea,” says retired Air Force Colonel Craig “Buck” Walker, one of the driving forces behind the OA-1K Skyraider II. “I wanted the team at AFSOC to see what we’d built - and to know it wasn’t just another PowerPoint plane. It was real. It was flying.”

The Skyraider II was born from a modified agricultural airframe and was originally dubbed “Sky Warden” by the company that birthed it, L3Harris. Today, it is the U.S. military’s latest tool for armed overwatch, a mission that combines intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and precision strike in support of Special Operations Forces (SOF). But its roots are humble: a crop duster. A firefighting bird. An underdog with a gun.

Walker, a former AC-130 gunship pilot and Weapons Squadron commander who spent decades in special operations aviation and flew combat missions around the world, helped transform that underdog into a battlefield asset that could solve one of SOCOM’s hardest problems: how to deliver persistent, lethal, and responsive airpower in the most remote corners of the world.

The Problem: No Air Support at the Edge

The push for Armed Overwatch wasn’t academic. It came because American blood was spilled.

On October 4, 2017, a team of Green Berets was ambushed in Niger. Four of them (and four Nigerians) were killed. The attack became known as the Tongo Tongo ambush. The aftermath was brutal: investigations, blame, and a sobering realization across the U.S. military that there simply wasn’t enough responsive air support for SOF teams operating far from traditional battlefields.

“It was a wake-up call,” says Walker. “And it wasn’t just about that one event. The truth is, AFRICOM and SOUTHCOM are chronically under-resourced when it comes to air assets. I commanded a task force in Africa in 2013 and 2014. We had huge operations, but almost no strike capability. I had to beg, borrow, and steal for RPAs and maybe a couple CV-22s. That was it.”

Africa is vast—nearly three times the size of the continental U.S. A drone or fast jet operating from a safe base can take hours to reach a target. And most combat aircraft aren’t suited to loiter overhead for long periods, nor to land on dirt strips near the fight. As great-power competition refocuses attention on the Indo-Pacific, support for small-footprint operations in hard-to-reach places becomes harder to justify.

But the mission hasn’t gone away.

“Special Operations guys are still out there,” Walker says. “And they still need someone watching overhead. Someone who can strike. Someone who won’t leave them hanging.”

Building the Skyraider II

SOCOM’s solution was to hold a competition. In 2020, the command launched the Armed Overwatch program, seeking a rugged, versatile aircraft that could carry sensors and weapons, operate from austere airfields, and perform ISR and strike missions, all with just two crew members.

Five aircraft were selected for trials, including the Textron AT-6E Wolverine, the MC-208 Guardian, and a revamped version of the Polish M28 Skytruck. But one contender stood out for its simplicity, endurance, and payload: a heavily modified AT-802U from Air Tractor, with avionics and military expertise coming courtesy of L3Harris.

“It’s a farm plane, yes,” Walker laughs. “But that’s the beauty of it. Millions of flight hours. Proven durability. You can land it in a field, load it up, and be airborne again in minutes. That’s exactly what we needed.”

What emerged from the collaboration was the OA-1K Skyraider II. It features a redesigned wing to carry 6,000 pounds of ordnance, hardened landing gear for unpaved strips, and a modular belly pod that can house advanced mission systems and sensor integration gear.

“It has three visual sensors—two 20-inch and one 15-inch MX-series turrets—and it’s provisioned for a fourth, a radar pod developed in the UK by Thales,” says Walker. “That gives you incredible flexibility. You’re not just tracking a guy—you’re watching who he talks to, where he’s been, what routes he’s used. You can go back in time.”

Even more impressive: it can fly for nine hours on internal fuel alone.

Collapsing the Stack

In a traditional combat zone like Iraq or Afghanistan, a single Special Operations raid might have required a complex airpower “stack”: ISR drones, fast jets, gunships, tankers, and battlefield coordination officers. Dozens of personnel, aircraft, and systems—all synchronized for one target.

“Sometimes we had 21 people in the stack for one objective,” Walker recalls. “And behind that? Tankers, mission planners, intel analysts. It was massive.”

In contrast, the OA-1K Skyraider II was designed to collapse that entire stack into a single aircraft, flown by just two people. It brings with it multiple sensors, weapons, secure comms, and real-time data processing.

“Think about it,” Walker says. “Instead of five different aircraft each doing one thing, you have one platform that can track, surveil, designate, strike, and talk to everybody. That’s not just efficient—it’s revolutionary for how SOF operates.”

The ability to federate control of the aircraft’s sensors—meaning operators on the ground or in remote command centers can take over certain systems—adds to its flexibility. “You can push control of a sensor to a JTAC [Joint Terminal Attack Controller] on the ground,” says Walker. “Or to the JOC [Joint Operations Center] back at HQ. That kind of networked control is a huge force multiplier.”

Inside the aircraft, the cockpit was designed to handle all this without overwhelming the crew, with senspor data fused to help the crew manage the battlespace. Large landscape displays allow the sensor operator to manage multiple video feeds simultaneously, including radar, infrared, and optical imagery. The pilot, meanwhile, has direct access to autopilot, comms, and strike controls, with a helmet-mounted display (HMD) adding augmented situational awareness.

Versatility Meets Survivability

Some critics questioned the Skyraider II’s survivability in hostile environments. The aircraft lacks ejection seats and is not stealthy, raising concerns about its vulnerability to ground fire.

Walker is unapologetic: “Neither does the U-28. Neither did the AC-130. We flew into bad places with no ejection seats for decades. You build in survivability by being smart—through redundancy, through rugged design, and through proper mission planning.”

The Skyraider’s PT6A-67F engine is one of the most reliable turboprops ever built, although in a recent training sortie, a Skyraider II suffered an in-flight engine failure. The crew glided the aircraft safely into a dirt field. It was towed back to the hangar, the engine swapped, and returned to flight status with no airframe damage.

“The landing gear didn’t even break,” Walker says proudly. “Try that in a fast jet.”

The platform’s simplicity also means it’s easy to maintain and deploy. At trade shows, L3Harris demonstrated how the wings could be removed, trucked to a new location, and reassembled in hours. The entire aircraft can be loaded onto a C-17 and deployed to a remote forward operating base with minimal support.

“It was designed from the start to be expeditionary,” Walker emphasizes. “And it shows.”

Walker is quick to praise the competition. “There were good people working on every one of those platforms. I know most of them. Former operators, aviators: true professionals.”

The Bronco II, developed by Leidos and Paramount Group, was an agile twin-boomer based on South African designs. It showed promise but suffered a bizarre mechanical failure when one of its landing gears collapsed while parked. That incident removed it from the competition.

Textron’s AT-6E Wolverine was a strong performer but raised concerns about operating in sandy, austere environments. Other contenders, like the MC-208 and MC-145 Skytruck, lacked performance or had configuration challenges.

“Look, we all wanted the best platform to win,” Walker says. “But Skyraider had the endurance, the weapons, the sensors, and the ruggedness. It wasn’t even close.”

From Legacy to Leap Forward

The aircraft’s name isn’t accidental. The OA-1K Skyraider II pays homage to the A-1 Skyraider, the iconic Vietnam-era single-engine warplane renowned for its ability to loiter, soak up damage, and deliver close air support to embattled troops. Pilots called it “Spad,” and ground troops adored it for showing up when no one else could.

Today’s Skyraider shares that DNA—but wrapped in 21st-century systems and AI-driven mission sets. “We wanted to honor that legacy,” Walker says. “But we also wanted to break new ground.”

And break ground it has. In addition to its role in Africa and other theaters, AFSOC leadership has hinted at using the OA-1K in the Indo-Pacific—a region where the tyranny of distance complicates logistics and operations. The aircraft’s long endurance, dirt-strip capability, and potential to carry small cruise missiles make it a viable option for unpredictable forward basing and gray-zone conflict.

“This platform is perfect for that kind of fight,” Walker notes. “If you can put Skyraiders on random dirt runways in the Philippines, you’ve changed the game.”

Eyes in the Sky, Brains at the Edge

One of the most quietly revolutionary features of the OA-1K Skyraider II is what Walker calls “edge processing.” In plain terms, it means that the aircraft doesn’t just collect data—it interprets it, on board, in real time.

“There’s an AI system watching the video feeds,” Walker explains. “You could be tracking a village, and the system will ping: ‘Hey, you asked about a white Toyota 4Runner with a dented fender—I found it.’ Then it’ll say, ‘Want to see where it’s been for the last two hours?’ That kind of thing changes everything.”

This capability addresses a persistent challenge in modern military intelligence: information overload. The Department of Defense often refers to this as the “data lake”—a flood of raw data that requires vast human resources to process, exploit, and disseminate (PED). But Skyraider II does much of that onboard, with built-in systems fusing sensor data, correlating signals, and surfacing actionable insights.

“You’ve got people at a JOC staring at 30 feeds trying to make sense of things,” Walker says. “Skyraider helps cut through that. It takes what’s raw and makes it useful before it ever leaves the plane.”

And if the satellite link goes down in a peer conflict? No problem. Skyraider can still deliver results by making local decisions without relying on cloud processing or remote servers—a vital advantage in environments where communications may be jammed or degraded.

The Future of Armed Overwatch

In 2022, SOCOM announced that the Skyraider II had won the Armed Overwatch contract.

The program calls for up to 75 aircraft, a number that reflects not just the need for coverage in AFRICOM and SOUTHCOM, but also future contingencies in places like the Pacific, Eastern Europe, or even Central Asia.

In 2023, the OA-1K achieved initial operational capability. While specific deployment details remain classified, several aircraft have reportedly participated in live-fire exercises and operational trials across the continental U.S. and overseas ranges.

AFSOC’s commander, Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, has spoken publicly about the aircraft’s future, including ambitions to integrate it with new munition types—like low-cost, swarming cruise missiles such as the Leidos Black Arrow or the Air Force’s Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV). These weapons, which cost a fraction of traditional standoff munitions, could radically shift the economics of precision strike.

“Now we’re talking about 100 cruise missiles in a C-130,” Walker says. “Imagine putting even a handful of those on a Skyraider. You’ve just turned a prop plane into a strategic weapon.”

As SOCOM’s traditional airframes—like the CV-22, AC-130, and MC-130—face aging fleets and evolving missions, the Skyraider II may take on increasing responsibility as the front-line overwatch and strike asset for SOF teams operating in austere or denied areas.

Though he’s now a civilian, Walker still talks like a commander. He has the cadence of someone who’s led combat missions where decisions were measured in seconds—and mistakes in blood.

When he speaks of the Skyraider II, there’s pride—but also perspective.

“This isn’t a silver bullet,” he says. “You’re not going to use it to take out S-400 sites or go head-to-head with a MiG. That’s not the point. The point is to be there when no one else can. To protect our guys when they’re at the edge of the map, far from help.”

And to do it efficiently. Cheaply. Quietly. Reliably.

“I used to fly with a B-52 overhead in Afghanistan 24/7. We burned 11 million pounds of fuel a day to keep it there,” he says, shaking his head. “Skyraider gives you a different way. One airplane. Two people. Multiple sensors. Precision weapons. Nine hours on station. That’s a capability you can’t ignore.”

He smiles and adds, “And if you need to land on a dirt road and refuel it with a gas can? Go for it. It won’t complain.”

The Legacy Continues

In the Vietnam War, Sandy pilots flew their Skyraiders low. They loitered. They struck hard. And they came home riddled with holes, but still flying. The OA-1K Skyraider II follows in that tradition—not as a relic of the past, but as a tool for the future.

Built from the bones of a crop duster, and taken from the minds of special operations pilots, it’s a reminder that innovation doesn’t always come from sleek stealth jets or billion-dollar programs. Sometimes, it comes on big tires, with a dirt road under its feet and a 6,000-pounds of kinetic capability slung under two crop duster wings.

And sometimes, that’s exactly what the mission needs.