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Not a priority

At a time when the Air Force is reducing people and cutting corners to pay for wartime urgencies, I’m not convinced it needs the Joint Cargo Aircraft.

If the brass have their way, the service will receive 40 to 75 twin-engined, tactical airlifters that resemble shrunken C-130 Hercules.

In June, the C-27J won the JCA competition. The contract is managed by L-3 Communications, which has never run a major aircraft program. Boeing would set up a production line.

The prime contractor that lost the contest, Raytheon Co., claimed its European-designed C-295 aircraft would cost less and perform equally well.

The Raytheon team filed a protest to the Government Accountability Office on June 22. A company announcement says “a protest was necessary based on crucial portions of our proposal that were either incorrectly measured or not considered during the source selection process.”

Similar protests have stymied what once seemed a straightforward program for a new combat search-and-rescue helicopter.

Anticipating at least a yearlong delay in the helicopter program, Air Force officials announced July 6 that they’ll pull $123 million from the CSAR-X program to pay for other initiatives.

Air Force leaders can’t be faulted for the CSAR-X delay. They ran the program well. They believe their choice of the HH-47 Chinook is defensible. They wanted a new rescue aircraft badly: Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley called it his second priority, behind a new air refueling tanker.

A senior aerospace official told me that we’re living in a new era. “From now on,” he said, “everyone who loses a big contract is going to file a protest, every time.” If he’s right, the losers will be the troops, who deserve the right equipment on a timely basis.

Now it appears the Joint Cargo Aircraft may be halted because of a protest. “We’re dead in the water,” said Col. Martha A. Meeker, the service’s chief for mobility and special operations requirements.

I disagreed with the Air Force’s selection for the CSAR-X program, but I don’t know anyonewho doubts the need for a rescue helicopter.

In the case of the JCA, I question whether the Air Force needs any aircraft under this program or for this mission.

Maj. Gen. Marshall K. Sabol, the Air Force’s director of operational capability requirements, told me July 5 that the JCA is needed to haul “time-sensitive, mission-critical cargo.”

Sabol recalled flying into Baghdad in mid-2003 in a C-130 carrying just one cargo pallet and two passengers. A smaller aircraft could have done this more easily and cheaply, he said.

Sabol called the JCA “a great addition to our toolbox” that would free up larger C-130s for other operations.

But the JCA began as a small, simple Army effort to replace a few C-23 Sherpa cargo planes. The Army remains the lead service in the program.

Given what little support the program enjoys — it is too modest to big spenders on Capitol Hill — the Raytheon team’s protest could seriously delay or kill the JCA.

That would be unfortunate for the Army, which has a legitimate requirement for this aircraft.

But the Air Force should back out of this program. I admire Air Force leaders, including those quoted here, but on the JCA they haven’t made their case.

The writer, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of “Air Combat,” a history of fighter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.