An Air National Guard base in Oklahoma will host the first formal training unit for the service's armed recon crop duster plane used for special operations, an announcement that comes as watchdogs question the aircraft's future in combat.
In a ceremony last week, Will Rogers Air National Guard Base in Oklahoma City announced it would become home to Air Force Special Operations Command's newest aircraft, the OA-1K Sky Warden, an armed single-engine aircraft modified from an Air Tractor frame that has been traditionally used by farmers as a crop duster.
The new OA-1K aircraft, which are not yet fully outfitted, will replace the long-standing twin-engine MC-12 Liberty reconnaissance aircraft, which are being phased out by 2027. The new mission will bring "an increase of 150-200 permanent personnel" to Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, the installation said in a Monday news release.
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"The OA-1K aircraft are truly awesome machines," Lt. Col. Jesse Ziegler, incoming 17th Special Operations Squadron commander, said in the news release. "These [block] zero models are not fully modified yet and serve as an initial training aircraft, until both air crew and aircraft reach operation status."
Mission-ready OA-1Ks are expected to arrive in 2025, the news release said.
Creation of the formal training unit at Will Rogers Air National Guard Base comes amid a time of skepticism by government watchdogs into how the military plans to use the modified crop duster for special operations missions.
The Government Accountability Office, Congress' watchdog agency, issued a report in late December revealing that Special Operations Command "decided on the size of the fleet before conducting the required analyses" and that it did not fully justify acquiring 75 of the aircraft.
And changes to the U.S. military's presence in the Middle East and other theaters limit many opportunities for use of the aircraft, the report added.
"Specifically, geopolitical changes since SOCOM established the acquisition target in 2019, such as the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and leadership changes in African countries, may affect where and how these aircraft can be used in the future," the GAO report said.
That criticism also comes as the Department of the Air Force has been undergoing major organizational and strategic changes to counter the rising threat of China's military in the Pacific -- which some critics and officials have previously told Military.com means a notable shift away from the Middle East.
While SOCOM reduced its buy to 62 planes earlier this year following that GAO report, Lt. Gen. Michael Conley, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command, told reporters during the Air and Space Forces Association's conference near Washington, D.C., in September that he believes 75 aircraft are still necessary.
"Our requirement still remains 75 based on what we've determined," Conley said. "I think from when OA-1K was conceptualized and decided on, until now, the world's changed a little bit. So we look at some different opportunities. I think it still provides a cost-effective close-air support platform, which is one of the missions that it was designed for."
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