A general officer with Air Force Special Operations Command, or AFSOC, recently suggested that the OA-1K Skyraider II — which is designed to conduct advanced armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions and carry out precision airstrikes — could be used as part of operations along the U.S. border with Mexico.
“Providing scalable and precision effects is where the Skyraider II will come in,” Brig. Gen. Craig Prather, AFSOC’s director of strategic plans, said in a Feb. 27 news release. “The Skyraider II could take on missions from the southwest border to Africa and create dilemmas to those we are in competition with.”
It is unclear exactly how the Skyraider II might be used to support U.S. troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border
Currently, active-duty troops assigned to Joint Task Force North for the mission along the southern border are “supporting enhanced detection and monitoring efforts” along with repairing and replacing physical barriers, a defense official told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
The Skyraider II is capable of multiple types of missions, and military commanders can decide which of the aircraft’s capabilities to utilize for future missions, said AFSOC spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse.
“While we can’t speculate on specific future operations, the versatile nature of the Skyraider II and its ability to support a wide range of missions makes it a viable option for special operations activities in support of the Joint Force in any theater,” Heyse told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
The first Skyraider II is expected to arrive at Hurlburt Field, Florida in the spring. The single-engine turboprop aircraft is being procured under U.S. Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch program, which seeks to purchase 75 light attack aircraft to “close air support, precision strike, and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, requirements in austere and permissive environments for use in irregular warfare,” according to an August 2022 Defense Department contract announcement.
The Skyraider II is designed for short take offs and landings and to be able to operate from unimproved or austere airfields, and its name pays tribute to the legendary A-1 Skyraider, which flew from 1946 to the 1980s and saw combat in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Prather’s comments about the Skyraider II and the U.S.-Mexico border came about a week after the State Department designated eight Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel and MS-13.
A spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, declined to say what types of missions the Skyraider II might fly as part of operations on the southern border.
“We do not discuss future operations or capabilities,” the NORTHCOM spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting the Defense Department to deploy troops to the region. On Sunday, the Pentagon announced that 2,400 soldiers with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, as well as 500 soldiers from 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Stewart will deploy to “seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States.”
“U.S. Northern Command continues to conduct our DHS [Department of Homeland Security]-requested and DoD-approved missions on the border,” the NORTHCOM spokesperson said.
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