AF wants to cancel program that supports Army - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

AF wants to cancel program that supports Army

The Air Force wants to cancel a fixed-wing aircraft program the Army was counting on for battlefield support.

A panel of top Pentagon officials will determine the fate of the L-3 Communications/Alenia Aeronautica C-27J cargo plane program following an Air Force proposal to terminate the program.

The internal Air Force recommendation to scrap the C-27J program in its yet-to-be-finalized 2013 budget draft has touched a nerve within the Army, which once ran the program, and the Air National Guard, which currently operates the twin-turboprop planes.

If the program is canceled, it is unclear what would happen to the operational aircraft being flown in combat by the Air National Guard.

The C-27J program — dubbed the Joint Cargo Aircraft — is currently run by the Air Force. The planes themselves are flown by the Air National Guard and conduct the Army direct support mission. This means they deliver critical supplies to troops on the battlefield as needed.

Historically, the Army has flown these missions with the C-23 Sherpa, a Reagan-era aircraft that is reaching the end of its service life. The Army selected the C-27J in 2007. The Pentagon’s original plan called for buying 78 aircraft, 54 for the Army and 24 for the Air Force.

But in 2009, the Defense Department shifted the program to the Air Force, which reduced the planned buy to 38 aircraft. At the time, the Air Force committed to flying the Army direct-support mission. Currently, 21 aircraft have been purchased.

The shift was met with skepticism within the Army ranks, where many officials voiced worry that the Air Force would kill the program, much as it did in the 1960s when it took over the Army’s fixed-wing C-7 Caribou program.

“The impact of this decision was bad and immediate,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting and Army Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright, then chair and vice chair of the National Guard Association of the United States, wrote in October 2009.

“Remote bases and outposts found themselves continually running short of supplies because the Air Force couldn’t or wouldn’t fly to the same locations that Army aviators routinely supported with the C-7,” they wrote. “Eventually, the Air Force returned the Caribous and their mission back to the Army.”

Over the past three weeks, senior Air Force officials have been hinting at the pending C-27J program termination, defense and industry officials say.

In the coming weeks, the Deputy’s Management Action Group, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, will direct the Air Force to fund the 38-aircraft program of record or cancel the program, according to two defense officials with knowledge of the plans. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal budget decisions.

Unrelated to future cuts

The decision not to continue the program in 2013 is part of a Pentagon effort to cut more than $450 billion in planned spending over the next decade.

During congressional testimony in late October and early November, Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, and Gen. Philip Breedlove, the air service’s vice chief, pledged to support the Army’s direct support mission with either C-27Js or C-130s, built by Lockheed Martin.

“If that mission is to be done with C-27s or C-130s, it is a decision that is still pending and is a part of this ongoing budget review,” Breedlove said at an Oct. 27 House Armed Services readiness subcommittee hearing. “But that will be worked out in the next few months.”

While Breedlove would not specifically address the aircraft in question, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, said his service “is very committed to the C-27.”

“We feel it fills a gap,” he said at the same hearing.

Chiarelli also said the aircraft “provides a tremendous capability for homeland defense, and that is one of the things that was critical about the C-27 and its ability to get into airfields here in the United States that other aircraft can’t get into in the event of homeland defense kinds of missions.”

Schwartz said at a Nov. 2 House Armed Services Committee hearing that any decisions relating to the program’s future would be tied to the DoD-wide comprehensive review that will inform the budget cuts over the next 10 years.

Staff writer Kate Brannen contributed to this report.