L-3 Harris Sky Warden - USSOCOM Armed Overwatch

[Scott Kenny]

I think it's an outstanding design but a lot of those ops request something that can transit to the operating area (and back to reload) fast. I am not convinced that SOC got this here.

It's a crop duster.

That's a large part of their mission profile, because flying empty back to base is time that the plane is not making money!

 

[TomcatViP]

A-10 was often deemed too slow for TiC situations in Afghanistan. F-16 and Mirage were often more suited to support troops daily ops.

Is SOC convinced they can park Airplanes 20/30
Nautical Miles from every mission places?

For example, F-16 cruising at 400+kt with a full load of weapons are less than 15min away from engaging baddies at 100N.M
Turboprop flying at 200+kt with a full load of weapons are 30min away.
That makes them at best 1hr away after Winchester to reload and come back to support troops.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Is SOC convinced they can park Airplanes 20/30 Nautical Miles from every mission places?

For example, F-16 cruising at 400+kt with a full load of weapons are less than 15min away from engaging baddies at 100N.M
Turboprop flying at 200+kt with a full load of weapons are 30min away.
That makes them at best 1hr away after Winchester to reload and come back to support troops.

Wouldn't surprise me if AFSOC is putting a FARP that close to raid areas. An AT802 can fly off a dirt road just fine, most of the airstrips they use in commercial service are grass or dirt. Have the QRF team help set up the FARP real quick, then load back on their helos once the raid team goes into contact.

How far away was the "oh shit" team for the Bin Laden raid? "The Chinooks kept on standby were on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way" from Jalalabad to Abbottabad," (wiki) and it's 270km between those two cities. So, the QRF was about 90km/48nmi/56mi away. Another set of reinforcements was just over the border in Afghanistan.

 

[TomS]

A-10 was often deemed too slow for TiC situations in Afghanistan. F-16 and Mirage were often more suited to support troops daily ops.

Is SOC convinced they can park Airplanes 20/30
Nautical Miles from every mission places?

For example, F-16 cruising at 400+kt with a full load of weapons are less than 15min away from engaging baddies at 100N.M
Turboprop flying at 200+kt with a full load of weapons are 30min away.
That makes them at best 1hr away after Winchester to reload and come back to support troops.

The MO is going to be really different. SOCOM does not want or need on-call cab rank CAS for a whole AOR. Rather they will have a couple of these operating with/for a specific SOF detachment, doing surveillance and observation tasks. Then during an actual raid, you'd have these aircraft flying ahead of the raiding force (probably in helos) to observe the target, launch fires as needed during the op, then cover the extraction/exfil.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Wouldn't surprise me if AFSOC is putting a FARP that close to raid areas. An AT802 can fly off a dirt road just fine, most of the airstrips they use in commercial service are grass or dirt. Have the QRF team help set up the FARP real quick, then load back on their helos once the raid team goes into contact.

How far away was the "oh shit" team for the Bin Laden raid? "The Chinooks kept on standby were on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way" from Jalalabad to Abbottabad," (wiki) and it's 270km between those two cities. So, the QRF was about 90km/48nmi/56mi away. Another set of reinforcements was just over the border in Afghanistan.

And just to finish that thought, a 48nmi away FARP means that the Spad is ~12min out. Maybe half an hour from Winchester overhead to fully reloaded and back overhead.