U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has awarded a contract to a Leidos [LDOS] team to enter its Bronco II aircraft into the next phase of SOCOM’s Armed Overwatch program, the company said on June 3. The award was one of five made on May 14 to teams competing in the program.
The Leidos team, including Dallas-based Paramount Group USA and Mississippi-based Vertex Aerospace, will advance its Bronco II offering to the Phase III Operational Prototype Demonstration fly-off this summer.
The fly-offs by five teams between June 14 and July 23 at Eglin AFB, Fla. will be the final phase before a SOCOM down select in fiscal 2022 (Defense Daily, May 18).
“Bronco II is a rugged, affordable and sustainable multi-mission aircraft built to meet the specific needs of special operations forces,” Leidos said on June 3. “Designed to ‘roll-on, roll-off’ standards, it can be rapidly disassembled, transported and reassembled in the field by a small crew. Its modular missions systems enable rapid system changes, updates, additions, integration and removal. The Bronco II aircraft will be manufactured in Crestview, Florida.”
Leidos said that the Bronco II will be available for long distance deployments, as a disassembled plane fits in a 40-foot shipping container—one of which can go aboard a Lockheed Martin [LMT] C-130 and two of which are able to be carried by a Boeing [BA] C-17. After the Bronco II reaches its destination on a military cargo aircraft, technicians can reassemble the Bronco II and have it “ready to fly in less than 12 hours,” Leidos said.
(Defense Daily, June 1).
The $193 million would be an increase of $147 million from the $46 million provided by Congress in fiscal 2021 for the program.
Beside the Leidos team’s Bronco II, the five participants selected to participate in the Armed Overwatch evaluation are L3Harris Technologies’ [LHX] AT-802U Sky Warden, MAG Aerospace’s MC-208 Guardian, Sierra Nevada Corp.’s MC-145B Wily Coyote and Textron’s [TXT] AT-6E Wolverine.
“We have high confidence that each of these platforms can meet our requirements,” Jim Smith, SOCOM’s acquisition executive, told reporters last month.
Armed Overwatch is SOCOM’s program to find a near-production ready small attack aircraft capable of providing commanders with armed reconnaissance, strike coordination and reconnaissance, and airborne forward air control “in austere and permissive environments for the Countering-Violent Extremist Organizations” mission.
SOCOM also is interested in exploring manned-unmanned teaming with Armed Overwatch aircraft and their ability to employ new Air Launched Effects.
While the U.S. Air Force curtailed its low-cost attack aircraft program, SOCOM adapted it for the command’s Armed Overwatch program.