![]() Sky Warden could also carry GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs, Savoie said, and 元Harris is close to having it capable of carrying the AGM-114 Hellfire missile. The Sky Warden could be armed with six weapons stations, with the laser-guided 2.75-inch Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS, rocket being its primary weapon. 元Harris’ contract also includes providing training systems, mission planning systems, support equipment, spares and logistical support.Īir Tractor aircraft have carried weapons before, such as 50-caliber guns and 7.62 miniguns, Savoie said. The per-unit cost of a Sky Warden will vary depending on its configuration and capabilities, Savoie said, but declined to identify a figure. “It’s a pretty compact form,” Savoie said. 元Harris brought a Sky Warden to May’s Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida, where it demonstrated how quickly the breakdown and reassembly process could take place. The plane can be disassembled in about 7 hours, loaded on a cargo plane, and then reassembled in about the same amount of time once it’s reached its destination, he said. Savoie said Sky Warden can be easily prepared for deployment on a C-17 or C-5 mobility aircraft. 元Harris also built a third Sky Warden prototype to test and certify the aircraft’s strengthened, high-load wing to ensure it could carry up to 6,000 pounds of external ordnance. Four other companies also demonstrated their prototypes to SOCOM in 2021 and early 2022.Ī second prototype was built for 元Harris’s own flight tests and to qualify the plane’s autopilot. The company sent that prototype to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida last summer for SOCOM’s evaluation. One was fully missionized, with all the modifications to do everything an operational Armed Overwatch plane would have to do. 元Harris created three prototype Sky Wardens. ![]() But, Savoie said, with its added strike capabilities, Sky Warden was much more complicated than the Jordanian surveillance planes. The company had worked with Air Tractor on previous programs, such as surveillance aircraft for Jordan in the mid-2010s and other projects involving sensor, weapons and software integration. To build the air frame that would become Sky Warden, 元Harris teamed up with Air Tractor, which typically builds agricultural and firefighting aircraft.
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