(Source: Air Force Magazine; posted Feb. 04, 2020)
By Brian W. Everstine
SOCOM will hold Industry days March 4-5 for the Armed Overwatch program, which will “provide Special Operations Forces deployable and sustainable manned aircraft systems” that will be used for “close air support, precision strike, and SOF intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in austere and permissive environments,” according to a Feb. 3 announcement.
SOCOM plans to release a draft Other Transaction Authority prototype demonstration proposal, which gives the military a way to pursue research and prototyping outside of regular contracts, on Feb. 14. The eventual follow-on contract is expected to be an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, with a base ordering period of five years and another option for two more years with an expected total of 75 aircraft, according to the announcement, which was first reported by Aviation Week.
Will Roper, the service’s acquisition boss, said in November the light attack experiment could split into an effort for armed overwatch as special operations forces have called for the service to address a pressing need for more protection from the air—a shift away from the original intent of the light attack experiment.
“There are systems right now that we don’t really think of as being in the [US Special Operations Command] portfolio, like MQ-9s, that we’d like to explore and see, can they do a better job?” Roper told reporters. “Experimentation with systems we have now, I think is a great way to try to go after that role.” (end of excerpt)
Click here for the full story, on the Air Force Magazine website.
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