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The maiden flight of the first Alenia Aermacchi C-27J Spartan for the RAAF in mid-December marks a significant milestone in the ADF’s quest to acquire a Battlefield Airlift (BFA) capability.

Ten C-27Js are being acquired under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract with the US Government, which will see the Italian aircraft completed to Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) configuration by L-3 Communications in Waco, Texas. They will not only replace capability lost with the retirement of the Caribou, but provide the missing piece of airlift capability which, in the future, will stretch from the King Air 350 to the strategic C-17A Globemaster III.

The aircraft flew from the manufacturer’s facility in Turin on December 18 and was due to be ferried L-3 Communications this month, ahead of delivery to the Commonwealth in the middle of the year.

Although still some weeks ahead of schedule and remaining within budget, it is understood that the first flight had been delayed from mid November because of problems associated with clearing the US manufactured and ITAR-controlled radios through Italian Customs.

Overall the project is on track to achieve IOC, which represents sufficient aircraft and trained crews to meet fifty percent of a mature rate of effort, in 2016.

Project overview, ANAO audit and green light

The C-27J was announced the winner of Air 8000 Phase 2 in May 2012, beating the Airbus Military C-295, but the process has not been without controversy and was the subject investigation by the Australian National Audit Office.

“The C-27J was assessed by Defence as the aircraft which best met all the essential capability requirements and provides the best value for money,” according to then Ministers for Defence, Stephen Smith and Defence Materiel Jason Clare said in a joint statement when making the announcement. “It was assessed as being able to fly further, faster, higher while carrying more cargo and requiring a smaller runway than the other aircraft under consideration, the Airbus Military C-295.

“The acquisition of the 10 C-27J aircraft with associated support equipment will be conducted through an FMS arrangement with the US at a cost of around $1.4 billion. Initial logistic support, including training for aircrew and maintenance personnel will be provided through the FMS program, utilising the system that has been established in the US. Defence will seek a separate agreement with the C-27J manufacturer, Alenia, in order to ensure that RAAF can operate, maintain and modify the aircraft throughout its planned life.”

However, following concerns regarding process and value for money, the acquisition project was referred to the ANAO by then Shadow Defence Minister David Johnston in May last year.

Released last August last year, the report found that, while the acquisition process did not breach the Australian Government Financial Management Act and there were reasonable grounds for selection of the C-27J on a value for money basis, it criticised Defence’s handling of the process, particularly with regard to relations with industry.

The report was also critical of the quality of Defence’s advice to government, but found there was ‘a reasonable basis’ for direct source FMS procurement of the C-27J as a better value for money option than either a commercially-sourced C-27J or the C-295. It addition it noted that when the direct source procurement process decision was taken in May, the FMS price was only valid until June when the US contract with Alenia was due to expire, and could not be matched by the other options.

US program cuts and self sufficiency

One of the advantages of buying military equipment through the FMS process is the ability to reduce risk and sustain the platform going forward by leveraging off the numerically superior US programs. At the outset Air 8000 Phase 2 was no different, with the potential to tap in to the US Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) project.

However successive US budget cuts have seen the JCA program first scaled back in numbers dramatically and finally removed from service with the US Air National Guard (ANG) altogether. This latter measure is not an indictment of the aircraft itself, which has anecdotally performed extremely well in the hot and high conditions of Afghanistan, but rather to rationalise the USAF tactical airlift fleet on the ubiquitous C-130 Hercules. 

Late last year it was announced that seven ex-ANG aircraft would be transferred to the USAF Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and a further 14 would be passed to the US Coast Guard, ensuring the Spartan will remain in US military service, albeit in reduced numbers, for some time to come.

The possibility of it being withdrawn from US service prematurely was taken into consideration by the Project Office and in June 2012 a $64 million contract was signed with Alenia Aermacchi for lifetime access to technical data. This move ensures that Australia is able to technically sustain the aircraft through to Life of Type, whether it continues in US service or not.

“The USAF is divesting itself of that capability, but we knew that before the project started and we analysed what risk that posed to us,” explained Group Captain Warren Bishop, Project Director, New Airlift Project Office to ADM. “We have determined that it actually does not impact on us at all, as we were going to operate the aircraft organically anyway.

“If the USAF were operating it there would have been some economies of scale to be gained, however while they are divesting themselves of the aircraft there are a number of other US Government organisations lining up to take them over, and so those synergies will remain in place.”

Through Life Support (TLS)

Given the short timeline between contract signature and delivery of the first aircraft, an interim three-year support contract has been signed with L-3 Communications to sustain the C-27J until a long term TLS plan can be put into place.

“L-3 as the prime contractor has an interim contract to deliver initial training for the initial cadre of air and ground crew in the US. That process is being managed under the FMS case by the USAF and is on-track. We’re working towards that solution to be ready in the second half of 2014,” GPCAPT Bishop said.

“We’re working towards establishing our own training capability in Australia post that interim program and that is on-track too. We’re all ready to go, we have our systems in place – the contracting process is working to schedule, the USAF is a very motivated supporter and we’re actually quite keen to get moving on this.”

What the future TLS model will be is yet to be decided but the Project Office is using the present C-130J-30 arrangements as the reference point and there will be significant opportunities for Australian industry.

“We are going to have Australian TLS for this aeroplane and we will go to open tender compete it, the team was stood up by January and we’ll have three years from mid year to put it in place. We bought that three years of interim logistics support from the OEM to enable us to put in place an organic Australian TLS solution,” GPCAPT Bishop detailed.

“It might be not unlike the C-130J solution, but we are going to compete it. It’s not a certainty it will be exactly like that, but that’s the aiming point.”

Remaining risk

Outside the unlikely events of either Alenia or the Commonwealth pulling out of the program, Group Captain Bishop says he sees no significant risk to project delivery.

“In terms of delivering the capability on-schedule and on-budget, the risks are mitigated and are not significant,” he noted. “It’s going to be an off-the-shelf USAF aircraft and they have already done everything they need to do to get it into service. The only differences for us will be to clear anything we might put in the back of the aeroplane which is different to what they carry and that’s a minor certification and operational evaluation issue anyway.”

See this month’s From the Source interview with Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown on PXX on the risks surrounding the program.

Project delivery

The first aircraft is contracted for delivery to the Commonwealth in July and despite the delayed first flight, the project is still running ahead of schedule.

“The project remains on schedule and that’s the most important fact. There is no concern it will fall behind and in fact the Italians are ahead of the aircraft build schedule,” GPCAPT Bishop said.

“We expect to receive our first aircraft in the second half of next year. Effectively we actually believe it will be ready before then, but under the terms of the FMS case, the USAF is due to deliver it in the second half of the year, so at the present time it is on schedule for that to occur.”

The first two aircraft will stay in the US after delivery to conduct training of an initial cadre of air and ground crews and these will be later joined by aircraft number five. The first deliveries to Australia, aircraft numbers three and four, will arrive at RAAF Richmond in March 2015.

“The FMS case contracting processes are on schedule, the USAF program for contracting the prime training contractors is again on schedule, on task and we’re relatively happy,” GPCAPT Bishop explained. “They are ready for us; they are ready to take aeroplanes on the schedule that has been published.”

The aircraft are to be operated by No.35 Squadron, initially at RAAF Richmond, although it is understood a move to RAAF Amberley is planned in the 2017 timeframe. This however has not been confirmed by Defence, who say that future basing operations are still under consideration.

FOC is currently slated for the end of 2017, by which time all aircraft and crews will have relocated back to Australia.

“This program, like the C-17, is another good news story of DMO delivering a capability that is going to do excellent work for the Australian people. It’s going to do great things for the ADF in its primary role and it will also have a great outcome for Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, supporting events like the floods which occurred in Queensland and NSW in the last couple of years,” GPCAPT Bishop concluded.

“If we had this aeroplane then we would have been able to do vastly better things. Delivering this capability on schedule will provide great benefits for this country.”

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