New Skyraider II 'Swiss Army Knife' Joins AFSOC Fleet

In recent weeks, in the skies over Iran, we saw the value of high-tech as a force multiplier. American stealth aircraft and smart weapons dealt staggering damage to Iran's armed forces, to the point that all they have left are a few boats that are essentially water skiing speedboats with machine guns, and a few hundred goblins with AK-47s.

Low-tech played a significant part in this, too. Once air dominance over Iran was established, which took the USA and Israel about six minutes, our A-10 and B-52s were operating with impunity in Iranian airspace, doing what they do best: Dealing with a problem by the suitable application of high explosives.

Speaking of low-tech, the United States Air Force has not taken possession of 18 of their latest low-and-slow close air support birds: The OA-1K Skyraider II.

The Air Force now has 18 new light attack aircraft that are designed to support special operations forces on the ground, and it expects to receive “a handful more” by October, said Lt. Col. Robert Wilson, of Air Force Special Operations Command, or AFSOC.
The single-engine turboprop OA-1K Skyraider II is “essentially a Swiss Army Knife of airborne capability,” that can fly armed reconnaissance, close air support, and precision strike missions, said Wilson, AFSOC’s armed overwatch requirements branch chief.
The Skyraider is designed to support operations that range from counter-terrorism to “aspects of full-on conflict,” Wilson told reporters on Friday. It is capable of carrying weapons, including Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS, laser-guided rockets, and the plane also has rails and pylons on its wings so it can be equipped with more advanced weapons and sensors in the future.

The new plane is named in honor of the A-1 Skyraider of Vietnam fame, also an aircraft that performed beyond anyone's expectations.

The Skyraider II: That Time the USA Turned a Cropduster Into an Attack Plane

The new aircraft, as I wrote back when it was first introduced, is the product of good old American ingenuity, in which someone said, "Hey, what would happen if we stuck guns and rocket pods on a cropduster?"

Now the Air Force has something new along these lines: The OA-1K Skyraider II, to be assigned to the United States Special Operations Command. The OA-1K was, we note, developed by L3Harris from their AT-802 Air Tractor - a cropduster. And the new plane, aside from having a storied name in close-air support, has plenty of capability in its own right.

Low tech is all right. Low and slow, when it comes to close air support, is downright essential. And the Skyraider II is so good at this, that the primary gunsight appears to be an over-the-counter item you can pick up at any gun shop.

Why does this sky raider II have an eotech in the cockpit? pic.twitter.com/ZhH8rQbWQG
— Ganso (@GansoConABomba) November 17, 2025

It looks like, despite asking for 75 of these, the Air Force will only be getting 53.

But due to “resource constraints and competing priorities,” a total of 53 Skyraider IIs are funded under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, according to AFSOC public affairs.
“The 75 quantity figure is the program record,” Wilson said. “I would say, as the capability sponsor, less than 75 is not desirable. We would like to see it at the program record of 75, but just, just being pragmatic, obviously, with resource constraints that could potentially limit the program less than that.”

The face of warfare is constantly changing. High-tech is great, yes, especially if the United States ever gets embroiled in a near-peer conflict. What the Skyraider II shows us, though, is that there's still a place in the inventory for something like this: An aircraft that already existed, was already adept at flying low, slow, and making sharp maneuvers; that is, in case you weren't aware of it, primarily what crop-dusters do. All we had to do was arm it.

In World War II, the Soviet Union strapped machine guns and light bombs onto Polikarpov Po-2 biplane trainers. These aircraft, known to their crews as Kukuruzniks - Wheatcutters - and they had seen pre-war use as not only trainers but, you guessed it, crop-dusters. Armed and flying by night, these things made the German troops in Russia maladjusted; their pilots, mostly women, would do things like switch off the engine, glide silently into where a German unit was laagered, and light them up with machine-gun fire before buzzing away at treetop level. If one encountered a German Messerschmitt, one could shake off the much faster German fighter by going into a tight circle that the German pilot couldn't match.

There's a place in war for these kinds of things. The new OA-1k is something that a Kukuruznik pilot would have looked at with envy.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

Help us continue to report on the administration’s peace through strength foreign policy and its successes. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.