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Science & Technology
New Air Force Italian Built Cargo Planes Fly Straight into Mothballs
2013-10-08
The Pentagon is sending $50 million cargo planes straight from the assembly line to mothballs because it has no use for them, yet it still hasn't stopped ordering the aircraft, according to a report.

A dozen nearly new Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed "the boneyard," and five more currently under construction are likely headed for the same fate, according to an investigation by the Dayton Daily News. The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes since 2007, according to purchasing officials at Dayton's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Of those, 16 have been delivered -- with almost all sent directly to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where some 4,400 aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles, with a total value of more than $35 billion, sit unused.

The C-27J has the unique capability of taking off and landing on crude runways, Ethan Rosenkranz, national security analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, told the newspaper. But with sequestration dictating Pentagon cuts, the planes were deemed a luxury it couldn't afford.

"When they start discarding these programs, it's wasteful," he said.

The planes are built by Rome-based Alenia Aermacchi, under what was initially a $2 billion contract, though that was scaled back.
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#12  coincidental article in the san Diego news paper
(http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Officials-Seek-Old-Military-Planes-to-Fight-Fires-226968761.html)

speaks about a solicitation to the DoD for 'out of use' aircraft for fire fighters and they specifically mention the C-27.

Posted by: USN,Ret.   2013-10-08 23:01  

#11   Gen. Raymond Odierno:

We — the Army has a stated requirement for intra- theater lift which we need in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and we’ve discussed this over time. The Army has the C-23 Sherpa program which, frankly, is getting old and, frankly, will no longer be capable of doing the mission we need it to do in the future. However, so we’ve defined this requirement.

The Air Force has come back and said, “We can meet all of your intra-theater lift requirements with the C-130.” So we have worked with them to develop concepts that will put C-130s in direct support of Army units in order to meet these requirements.

So I — I would just answer your question by saying we identified the requirement for intra-theater lift. C-27 was one solution. The Air Force has come back and said “we can solve this problem using the C-130.” So we are working with them to come up with the procedures in order for us to solve this problem using the C-130.
Posted by: Uncle Phester   2013-10-08 17:50  

#10  Army should borrow them and convert them to drones so the Air-farce doesn't get to ruin things for them.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-10-08 16:52  

#9  Looks like a baby C130. Its probably ideal for spoke and hub support of FOBs from a central airbase where the heavies fly in to the hub, and these do the tactical resupply. Army would glady have flown them. These should be at Ft Rucker. Damn Zoomies.
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-10-08 16:29  

#8  Fine looking aircraft.
Posted by: Shipman   2013-10-08 16:16  

#7  Something like 200 units split to AF, Army and foreign sales. See RAIT airshow.
Fondly known as the plane that Bob Drewes built.
Or maybe the one that broke him, as he retired and key staff resigned within weeks of the award.
Posted by: Skidmark   2013-10-08 14:09  

#6  It'sa durn Tea Party, holding up the ...sequester ... or debt ceiling ... or the shutdown ... or sumpin like that, so that fat cats can get richer, blah, blah, blah.
Posted by: Bobby   2013-10-08 14:07  

#5  Plane - Cockpit:







Posted by: Au Auric   2013-10-08 13:56  

#4  I think you have all overlooked and important reason for the planes being mothballed straight off the assembly line .... All the maintenance and flight instructions are written in Italian

or Tutte le istruzioni di volo e di manutenzione sono scritti in italiano
Posted by: Au Auric   2013-10-08 13:42  

#3  These aircraft were supposed to go to the Army in the first place, right?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2013-10-08 12:15  

#2  And yes, the Army wanted these aircraft but the AF lobbied Congress to cut them out of the purchase. And instead of giving them to the Army the mothball the aircraft.
Posted by: tipover   2013-10-08 12:07  

#1   The C-27J has the unique capability of taking off and landing on crude runways

Which of course the ground forces need, but doesn't fit the Fighter Mafia's agenda. Form a Strategic Command like the Russians, put the bombers/missiles/etc in there and return to the old Army Air Corps - air/ground support like the Marines have in house.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2013-10-08 11:43  

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