WILL ROGERS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Okla. —
On Nov 15, 2024, the seventeenth Particular Operations Squadron hosted a ceremony to publicly observe its alignment below the 492d Particular Operations Wing and reassignment to turn into the formal coaching unit for Air Drive Particular Operations Command’s latest plane, the OA-1K.
“The ceremony isn’t just a proper occasion,” stated U.S. Air Drive Col. Patrick Wnetrzak, 492d Particular Operations Wing commander. “It’s a testomony to our relentless pursuit of excellence, our unwavering dedication to our nation’s protection and the enduring legacy of those that have come earlier than us.”
The OA-1K is a brand new multirole crewed plane with the primary missionized variant anticipated to reach in 2025. The propeller-driven plane, which is constructed on the Air Tractor 802U body, will ship shut air help, precision strike, and armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance functionality in help of combating present and future threats.
“The OA-1K plane are really superior machines,” says Lt. Col. Jesse Ziegler, incoming seventeenth Particular Operations Squadron commander. “These [block] zero fashions should not totally modified but and function an preliminary coaching plane, till each air crew and plane attain operation standing.”
Along with WRANGB, the OA-1K shall be stationed at Hurlburt Area, Cannon Air Drive Base, and pending the outcomes of an environmental impression assertion, Davis Monthan Air Drive Base, Arizona. All coaching for the plane will happen right here below the 17 SOS, which shall be made up of each lively responsibility and Air Nationwide Guard Airmen from the 137th Particular Operations Wing.
“As soon as mixed with the total mission tools and the crews that these cadres will educate, the Particular Operations neighborhood may have a functionality we haven’t seen but,” stated Ziegler.
With the remission to the OA-1K, WRANGB is predicted a rise of 150-200 everlasting personnel and predicted to positively impression the native financial system. The arrival of the OA-1K comes on the heels of the divestment of the MC-12 plane at WRANGB, which is predicted to conclude in 2027.
At the moment WRANGB has two AT-802U coach plane getting used to coach preliminary cadre in a consultant tail wheel plane in preparation for the OA-1K arrival. The 17 SOS will present particular mission qualification, mixed programs refresher, in addition to proficiency and forex coaching.
Previous to standing up at WRANGB, the 17 SOS was an AC-130J unit at Cannon Air Drive Base. The squadron has a storied historical past of transformation and the squadron motto “no mission too demanding” is a testomony of the unit’s resolute and progressive spirit, which continues because the OA-1K FTU. The squadron has had quite a few operations together with fight in Southwest and Western Pacific, fight in Southeast Asia, catastrophe aid missions within the Philippines, and different particular operations missions as essential beginning within the Nineties, when AFSOC was activated.
By 492d Particular Operations Wing Public Affairs
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