Any of you heard of this yet?
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/04/navy-coast-guard-c27j-042012w/
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/04/navy-coast-guard-c27j-042012w/
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USCG to bid on AF C-27J
- Thread starter highside7r
- Start date
The commandant had mentioned to Congress that he and the AFCOS were discussing it. Guess they're going for it. Works out well for everyone - the Coasties get free airplanes, the AF gets rid of planes it doesn't want and gets Congress off it's back for dumping brand-new airplanes.
Tell you what, though: sort of calls bullshit on the AF's argument that it "can't afford" to operate the Spartan and the Herk together if the dang Coast Guard says it can. The Air Force just doesn't want the mission, but politically it doesn't want to let the Army into its kitchen. Not unlike my toddler breaking a toy she doesn't even like, because it "wouldn't be fair" for one of the other kids to have "her" toy.
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Tell you what, though: sort of calls bullshit on the AF's argument that it "can't afford" to operate the Spartan and the Herk together if the dang Coast Guard says it can. The Air Force just doesn't want the mission, but politically it doesn't want to let the Army into its kitchen. Not unlike my toddler breaking a toy she doesn't even like, because it "wouldn't be fair" for one of the other kids to have "her" toy.
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Yup...I expected to see this announcement any day. With "budget constraints" buying a fleet of more or less built and delivered planes provides a large and direct bump to our medium fixed wing asset pool. With the Falcon on it's way out (like it or not)-We need another option ASAP. Waiting for the 1 or 2 CASAs per year until 2020 or beyond just isn't going to cut it.
I hope this works out with a minimum of fuss.
I hope this works out with a minimum of fuss.
Seems way too easy, smart, and efficient. I'm sure a Congressman somewhere will have a problem with it.
If this goes through, would they be outfitted to match the -144's mission, I still need to do spec comparison between the 2 airframes? I had very small hope to fly these after I switched to fixed-wing had the Army kept them, but they would've gone to the Guard anyway.
It sounds like they're going to use them to augment the Herks, rather than the C-144s? Using them to, say, do a lot of the logistics missions and free up the Herks would be the cheaper option, since you wouldn't have to buy all the mission equipment. And the C-27s were designed specifically for dropping into austere fields.
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
Bingo...
. . . and they're still buying more of them (HC-144/CN-235). Since the USCG apparently isn't using these a/c as light transports, could any CG aviator tell us what the CASA a/c does better than the ES-350 (Super King Air) ? Does the USCG hope to become an "all-european" aircraft community?
We have a contract to buy them-that is why we continue to purchase them. We also have a niche that needs to be filled (medium-range, fixed wing), so the HC-144 is what we've been given. Way back, when we were looking at proposals to replace the Falcon (and the C-130 originally), we had two fixed wing assets offered: the Spartan and the CASA (sorry, no Super King Air in either proposal). The Spartan was much more expensive (at the time...it might be a wash except for operating costs as it burns more fuel than the CASA), and word on the street is that there were politcal reasons as well (bringing Spain on board in the War on Terror).
Now getting a bunch of Spartans in our lap would be tremendous. Budgetary constraints have slowed down the numbers of CASAs coming our way to a trickle, and you need at least 3 aircraft to stand up an air station, so it would take more than a decade to replace all of the Falcons. We also have plussed up the number of aviators in preparation for the CASA, so we've been carrying extra pilots at many air stations which is never a good thing (professionally).
As for Super King Air vice the CASA: I'm not sure the capabilities of the Super King Air as a logistics platform. I know the Falcon didn't do logistics, but our proposal to replace it did call for having logistics capabilities (and the CASA has that ramp that you can roll a pallet on to). Also, can you drop stuff from the air in the Super King Air? I'm guessing it would take a mod to put a hatch in the belly like the Falcon - not sure if this has been done already.
My take on it is I wish we had always had Spartans, and that we could get rid of the CASA completely and have a fleet of Spartans/C-130s. The CASA is much more capable, and having a common engine as the C130J would make being a wrench turner much easier.
Wow, this is pretty cool news. Although I find it difficult to get overly excited about moving eventually into a prop, this is a step in the right direction! 