Thanks for the article WILL!
via FoxNews.
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.Wow.
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.
They paid for planes that they had no intention of using.
They're being sent directly to the boneyards. How can we not do a complete audit of the Pentagon after hearing news like this?
They say you get the government you deserve. We can't be this full of shit can we?
Fuck the Air Farce.
ReplyDeleteIt's to go old school Constitutional on them and merge them with Army back into the War Dept. Dept of the Navy and the Dept. of War. Sec Def in charge of both.
Just tear of NSC 47 and reboot.
The Air Force didn't want these birds in the first place. The Army wanted them, which is why they had a "J" designation for "Joint." Then the Air Force got into a pissing contest with the Army, threatened to take our UAVs away if we didn't let them have the CJ-27s so we said, "fine, as long as we can get them into theater to replace the CH-47 which costs 7,800 dollars per blade hour with the CJ-27 which costs around 2,000 dollars per flight hour we don't care who owns the planes." Then the Air Force promised to get them into the pipeline to support the "last tactical mile" for delivering men, weapons, and equipment to places that are normally only serviced by CH-47s. Then the Air Force said, "screw you, we'll use C-130s instead and scrap this 1.6 Billion dollar program to the alter of the F-35 budget."
ReplyDeleteTrust me, I REALLY want the Army to have these planes. We could outfit them with EW platforms like the Italians did, and with C2 comms suites with or without an IO package, AND we could use them for paratrooper delivery systems (like we use the C-23 Sherpas we ALREADY HAVE). The Air Force doesn't care about supporting us with what we need. In the Pentagon, dollars are ammunition, and the Air Force is the enemy.
Pretty much
DeleteFunny, the worst enemy of Army is Air Force and the worst enemy of Air Force is Army. I know that healthy competition between arms is good thing but this is just ridiculous. With friends like that, who needs enemies.
ReplyDeleteGreat men have tried to audit the Pentagon and failed.
ReplyDeleteThis one wouldn't have a problem finding foreign customers if put up for a market.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if they are the same planes but Afghanistan was also supposed to be recieving C-27J, but the Italians and Americans refused to pay the Afghans the bribes the Afghan officials required to allow the Afghan Air Force to fly the planes. I am not sure but I think we took the planes back after they quit functioning.
DeleteThose were the old C-27A models. Some were Italian and some were old US birds. The USAF flew them in in Central and South America for years. But when Clinton was in office, they came due for overhauls, and were sent to the bone yard instead.
DeleteWe cannot sell them on to the third party due to contract clauses. The saddest part is we can train C-130J crews to fly in the C-27 for a lot less money. That is where the J came from (not JOINT). The C-130J and C-27J have the cockpit rating. Actually they have the same cockpit, avionics and power plants, this was meant to provide users an economy of scale.
Thanks for the info.
DeleteThis is why the US Coast Guard should have gotten the C-27J. They would have been perfect for curtain AOR's that are big and have adverse weather. They would have made perfect for MPA, Search and rescue and ISR.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Congress tell DOD to send some Spartans to the USCG and some to the Forrest Service. USCG said they need a minimum of 14 to fit them into their aviation missions.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to that?
ANG units should take up all the remainder IMHJO
"They say you get the government you deserve. We can't be this full of shit can we? "
ReplyDelete-heh, well when you put it that way....