About 15 seconds separated F-16 “Wild Weasel” pilots Lt. Col. William “Skate” Parks and Maj. Michael “Danger” Blea from life or death in the night skies over Yemen.
U.S. Special Operations Command
When U.S. Special Operations Command and the Air Force first developed requirements for its Armed Overwatch program, planners envisioned a rugged, lightweight, low-cost combat scout aircraft capable of supporting counterinsurgency missions. Now that they've acquired OA-1K Skyraider II, however, the command and its prime contractor are looking to up-arm their modified Air ...
U.S. Special Operations Command is once again slowing its purchases of the new OA-1K Skyraider II multipurpose counterinsurgency plane, as the Pentagon pivots its budget to prepare for a high-end conflict following two decades of wars in the Middle East.
House lawmakers are encouraging the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command to work together as each pursues long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Both entities are investing in unmanned assets that can slip into highly defended areas, loiter over a particularly valuable target for days at ...
Air Force Special Operations Command will find ways to use the OA-1K Armed Overwatch plane in great power competition, commander Lt. Gen. Michael E. Conley said this week, amid questions about the fleet’s size and utility in a changing strategic environment.
Lt. Gen. Michael Conley succeeded Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind as the head of Air Force Special Operations Command in a ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla., on July 2, while halfway around the world, an AFSOC CV-22 Osprey took flight at Yokota Air Base, Japan, ...
Budget documents indicate U.S. Special Operations Command is cutting back on its plans for Armed Overwatch, the rugged, lightweight, fixed-wing aircraft to support counterterrorism efforts in permissive airspace. According to SOCOM’s 2025 budget request released earlier this month, the combatant command is trimming its planned ...
Sky Warden, the modified crop-duster U.S. Special Operations Command picked as the winner of its Armed Overwatch competition, has entered low-rate initial production, and the first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in October, a SOCOM spokesman told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The combatant command ...
Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind took charge of Air Force Special Operations Command on Dec. 9, succeeding Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife and pledging to “stay the course on transforming this great command.” Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. presided over the change of ...
Pentagon leaders sought to balance both the past and future of U.S. Special Operations Command in their speeches as Army Gen. Bryan P. Fenton succeeded Army Gen. Richard D. Clarke in a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. One year to the day since ...
The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the nomination that could make the son of an Airman the Marine Corps’ first Black four-star general. The SASC advanced the nominations to the full Senate of both Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael E. Langley to become commander of ...
A contract award for U.S. Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch program is likely coming before the end of the summer, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command told Congress. Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife also countered opposition to the platform, saying it will ...