U.S. Government Agencies Fighting Over Who Gets C-27J Aircraft

Aviation Week and Space Technology is reporting that the C-27J tactical airlifter, once a castoff from the USAF, has become a hot commodity in the U.S. government’s aircraft fleet.

The USAF’s decision early this year to mothball its 21 brand-new, twin-engine C-27Js—labeling the Alenia Aermacchi transports a niche capability too expensive to sustain alongside its other airlifters—triggered an interagency squabble between the U.S. Forest Service, bent on using them as much-needed firefighting tankers, and the U.S. Coast Guard, which was intent on employing them to plug a gap in maritime patrol capability, the magazine reports.

Seven of those aircraft have already been spoken for, as Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Oct. 25 signed orders to dedicate them to Army Special Operations Command (Socom) for use in parachute-aided free-fall training, replacing aging CASA C212s, Aviation Week reports.

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