Posted on 10/07/2013 12:18:03 PM PDT by ColdOne
There's nothing wrong with the C-27J, it's just that the Pentagon doesn't want it given budget constraints.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yep.
Excellent catch:
DHS? TSA? FBI?
I think one of the first two.
floating fortresses
Get ‘em now and squirrel them away for later. They’ll still fly just fine.
Nothing new about this, towards the end of World War 2 the military did the same thing, as late as 1948 they were still building and mothballing aircraft, many were flown from the assembly line to the crusher....1000’sas the aircraft companies were given Gov contracts and they couldn’t be canceled mid production.
Those C-123’s ought to have been painted yellow. They were the taxi cabs for all us troops in the RVN. Good old bird.
The Bone yard, is at Davis-Monthum (DM) AFB, TUCSON AZ.
Wait, what?
Does Nancy Pelousie know? I thought no more cuts were possible
“If they’re Italian, that’s probably the safest place for them.....................”
You can tell they are Italian because they have hair under the wings and leak oil.
I’m a former FIAT owner so I know wherof I speak...............
“I’m a former FIAT owner so I know wherof I speak...............”
FIAT is short for Fix It Again Tony, or alternatively, Fix It Alla Time!
But then FIAT now owns Ferrari and Lamborghini and they are definitely not in the FIAT category.
The Royal Canadian Air Force is eyeing the type as a fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft. Perhaps they can buy them a fire sale prices.
Don’t write off the Italians when it comes to aircraft production. They make some damned fine aircraft.
Cheers...Chris
Very efficient. No operating costs, no repairs before retirement, just straight to the boneyard. Next year they can be chopped up and sold for scrap metal.
I spent more time UNDER my Fiat THAN I DID IN IT.....................
My guess is that there’s a fix in.
The AF will sell them as excess equipment to some Obama contributor for waaaay under costs, like a million or so per copy, so they can start their own cargo hauling company to funnel contributions to the DNC.....................
Donate them to Mexico to ship drugs to the U.S. Eliminate the leaky home built subs and desert backpackers and such.
They were supposed to go to the Air National Guard, and be use for in-theater cargo transport. The wind down in Iraq killed them off, so they’re going to be sold to either Iraq or Afghanistan, or both.
They have a cockpit almost identical to the C-130J, and use the same engines and props from the C-130J (hence the C-27J name.) They were developed by Alenia Aeronautica and Lockheed Martin, then LockMart backed out of the deal, so Alenia partnered with L3 Communications as the U.S. partner.
Originally, the U.S. Army was going to purchase and operate the C-27J for their own in-theater cargo delivery, but the USAF put up such a stink that the JCA was given to the USAF. Then the USAF turns around and dumps the entire project.
Awesome aircraft and yet another bonehead move by my beloved USAF to ditch them.
The C-27J is a good little airplane.
What’s going on here is that these aircraft were originally to be bought by the U.S. Army for use as theater tactical lifters to take some strain off of their CH-47 fleet which were having to do all of the heavy lifting. The U.S. Air Force, being the precocious pricks that they are, threw a fit about the Army operating a serious fixed wing air asset so they finagled and got the project assigned to them. Now, the U.S. Air Force does want to do theater tactical and has no plans to actually help the Army so instead of putting these fine airplanes to use they are being stored.
Utter horse$hit.
The C-27J is a good little airplane.
What’s going on here is that these aircraft were originally to be bought by the U.S. Army for use as theater tactical lifters to take some strain off of their CH-47 fleet which were having to do all of the heavy lifting. The U.S. Air Force, being the precocious pricks that they are, threw a fit about the Army operating a serious fixed wing air asset so they finagled and got the project assigned to them. Now, the U.S. Air Force does not want to do theater tactical and has no plans to actually help the Army so instead of putting these fine airplanes to use they are being stored.
Utter horse$hit.
A few days later, the C-119 made a very short traffic pattern and came back trailing smoke along with a bit of flame. The Fairchild guys were out the back door before it stopped rolling. A big crane was borrowed from Collins and an engine change got done on the apron in front of the TI hangar.
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