Alenia C-27J Wins Australian Airlift Contest

It’s been a long time coming but at last we know what the incomparable Caribou replacement will be.

And I heartily approve, believing from the word go that the Spartan would be the right choice.

But it still can’t do what the ‘bou ‘bou would do as the first aircrew to try and land it on an unprepared rising strip in the3 New Guinea Highlands will discover!

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) chose the Alenia C-27J Spartan to replace a fleet of 14 DHC-4 Caribou STOL airlifters that have already been retired. The 10-aircraft deal will be conducted via the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, with L-3 acting as the prime contractor. Alenia and L-3 formed a partnership to sell the C-27J to the U.S. armed forces. The RAAF also evaluated the EADS CN-295 for the Air 8000 requirement.

The contract is worth about $1 billion, including support equipment and several years of training and logistics support. According to the Pentagon’s notice of potential sale, the aircraft will be equipped with a full U.S.-made electronic warfare suite. The notice added that the C-27Js will also help replace 12 C-130H airlifters that the RAAF plans to retire. The first C-27J will be delivered in 2015, with initial operating capability to follow by the end of 2016.

Alenia said that the aircraft will be new-build, thereby safeguarding the workforce in Italy. There had been speculation that the RAAF would be offered C-27Js being built for, or already flying with, the U.S. Air Force. That service decided last January to withdraw its fleet of C-27Js as a budget-cutting measure, having already received 13 of a planned total of 38. The decision has been challenged in Congress, and might be overturned.

May 11, 2012, 2:03 PM

Alenia C-27J Wins Australian Airlift Contest
Chris Pocock
Fri, 11 May 2012 15:10:00 GMT

What Happened in the KC-X Tanker Saga

I have blogged before about the long drawn-out saga of KC-X, the USAF program [sic] to replace the ageing fleet of KC-135 aerial refuelling tankers (see USAF selects Boeing for KC-X contract and Aussies Steal a March on the USAF ). 

Now the evergreen and delightful Popular Mechanics provides a chronology of the tortured process U.S. Air Force Tanker - Boeing Governent Contract - Popular Mechanics

Well worth reading to find out how not to do it, how Boeing eventually won and how one person can be a national hero or a right pain in the butt depending on where you stand.

Rivet Joint morphs into Air Seeker

 

At last the coalition seem to have taken a sensible procurement decision to forgo “Made in Britain” kit and acquire three US RC-135 W Rivet Joint aircraft for the joint electronic intelligence role.  These will replace the ageing Nimrod R1s.

This will provide four advantages over the Nimrod:

• The RC-135 airframe is mature robust and virtually indestructible having been developed from the evergreen KC-135 tanker which is still in front line USAF service.
• The RAF will now have full interoperability with the US, unlike the Nimrod
• There will be three of them rather than only two Nimrods
• They're available now

Lets hope that the Government and its recently appointed new head of MoD procurement will will take lots more sensible defence procurement decisions rather than buying only British kit (because it keeps British jobs) like the previous and utterly incompetent government.