New battlefield aircraft for the raaf

[Bob C]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the clarification.

The confusion seems to stem from a reporter's error over whether the C27Js will actually be "built" in the US or not. I based my initial comment on the following article which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald On Line and the alleged remark by MinDef to the SMH reporter that they would be "built" in the US

"............New airlifters confirmed for RAAF David Ellery
May 10, 2012

Australia is to buy 10 C-27 Spartan battlefield airlifters, Defence Minister Stephen Smith said today.

The planes, to be built in the US, will begin arriving in 2015.They are the long-awaited replacements for the Vietnam War-era Caribous that were withdrawn from service in 2009............."

Since my initial post, I've been searching around for several days seeking more information about an Alenia factory in the U S and the closest I could find was the Alenia Aermacchi North America site which mentions its U S partner L-3 Communications having several facilities in Florida. Another site mentioned that the first U S C27J was built at Alenia’s factory in Turin, Italy and that the rest would be “assembled” at Cecil Field, County Duval, Florida.

So I agree with you that will be the case with Australia's order and that they won't actually be "built" in the U S A.

And I also agree that bugetary, not performance problems, were the reason for the premature retirement from USAF service.

But do you think that 10 is enough or should we have sought 12-16 from the outset ?

Cheers

Bob

[A McLaughlin]

When Boeing was a partner on the original Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program it was going to set up a manufacturing line at Cecil Field. But when numbers dwindled from 138 to 78 then to 38, it was decided to build the aircraft at Alenia in Italy and then fly 'green' airframes to the US for their mission systems fitout.

Boeing dropped out of the program a few years ago and L3 came in, and the fitout line was established at L3's facility at Waco.

Ten C-27Js is a good start - don't forget we only had 10 Caribous in the end and the utility of these in a modern war zone was highly questionnable anyway. Ten C-27Js can certainly cover a lot more ground a lot faster and with much bigger loads than 10 Caribous. With the C-130Js now mainly tasked in the tac role, the C-130Hs can also be retired. I doubt we'll see more C-27Js.