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Estimates: C-27 cheaper than C-130J

Turns out the Joint Cargo Aircraft might not cost $4 million more than an aircraft four times larger with two more engines.

Two conflicting congressional estimates on the cost of the C-130J and hearty endorsements from the Air Force Chief of Staff are blunting the impact of a congressional recommendation that the Air Force stop buying the JCA.

Now after a tough summer, the Italian-built C-27 Spartan looks more like the little light-tactical-airlifter-that-could.

In September, a House Appropriations defense subcommittee report on the JCA called for the Air Force to scrap its 24 planes and instead use the money to buy more C-130Js, calling the aircraft more “cost-effective” than the JCA.

The report didn’t cite numbers but said cost and the Air Force’s inability to “explain the roles and missions of the aircraft” led to the recommendation to pull the Air Force money.

But the report accompanying the 2009 Defense authorization bill agreed to Sept. 26 said the subcommittee based its points on an unfair comparison.

The second report claims house appropriators overestimated the average cost of each C-130J by almost $30 million. New estimates on the cost of the planes put the average unit price of the Air Force’s C-27 at $60.6 million compared with $84.2 million for the C-130J.

The second criticism for the JCA has been tougher to shake: What does the Air Force need it for?

At a recent Air Force Association conference, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz paired the light cargo lifter with the new long-range bomber program as two high priority gets for modern airframes. But the Air Force has been less than clear about how it would use the Italian-made cargo lifter.

“The JCA provides the Air Force a light, flexible solution for unique airlift requirements,” read a statement from Air Force spokesman Richard L. Johnson. “Its ability to take off and land on short, austere, unimproved runways makes it practical for use in the varied conditions in which we operate.”

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, said the Air Force shouldn’t get into the C-27 business.

“It’s a fine plane and I’m sure they can find things to do with it,” Thompson said. “But why waste money on getting planes that they don’t really need when there are absolutely essential programs that are not getting funded?”

For the Army, the other service vying for C-27s, the mission is tactical and crystal clear: It is to replace the old Irish-built C-23 Sherpa to drop supplies on short runways in forward areas.

The Army is inclined to assign the planes to individual field commanders to use at extreme short notice for their units — different from the highly scheduled operational pace of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. William Rew, director of operational planning, policy and strategy at Air Force headquarters, said in a Sept. 11 interview.

A meeting of the minds on the use of the JCA is being hammered between the services, Rew said.

The Army and Air Force have promised most of the 78 JCAs to Guard units.

The Air Guard is set to put the plane in Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Mississippi by 2015.

Since the House report was released, one congressman from Ohio has lambasted appropriators and the National Guard Association of the United States has called for Congress to fully fund the plane.

The Air Guard units planning for the JCA are shifting missions as a result of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Without the JCA, the future of those units is unclear.

“These are great units that deserve to have airplanes,” said Richard Green, legislative director for the NGAUS and former commander of the 179th Airlift Wing, based in Mansfield, Ohio. “A lot of what has been promised is not in legislation. There are memorandums of agreement, but it’s not legislation.”

The Air Force’s struggle with the JCA won’t affect the air arm of Special Operations Command.

The snake-eaters have plans to pin an “A” in front of the C-27 and turn it into the lethal little brother of the AC-130 Specter gunship, as well as a cargo airlifter.