US special operations forces will soon get support from a rugged new aircraft

Awesome! Here's to loiter time, maneuverability, and taking it to the enemy.

Technology keeps improving and the military has to improve with it. I'm sure these new aircraft are improved, but they sure look like old WW2 planes.

The Sky Warden is based on Air Tractor’s AT-802U—a 1,600-shaft-horsepower, PT6A-67F-powered brute with a maximum gross takeoff (and landing) weight of sixteen-thousand-pounds, and a useful load of 8,164-pounds. The Sky Warden moniker commemorates two best-in-class, multi-mission special operations combat platforms: Douglas’s venerable, Vietnam era, A-1E Sky Raider, and Pilatus’s contemporary U-28, which uses the callsign Warden during combat operations. L3Harris further states that the Sky Warden’s STOL capability, six-thousand-pound combat load-out, six-hour loiter time, and two-hundred-nautical-mile combat radius will enable the airplane to co-locate with the dis-aggregated ground units likely to play pivotal roles in future conflicts. They have a used a similar type unarmed airplane in anti drug ops in Cent./So. America for several years with great success. Not the prettiest or fastest, but it can carry nearly it's own weight in ord., it's crew & systems are protected from light AAA, it can turn on a dime and give you change. In short, it's a badass crop duster with a chip on it's shoulder and a real bad attitude that likes to hurt bad people.