Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, said he has signed a letter with Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey that reiterates both services’ commitment to the C-27J transport aircraft program “in the original beddown and the original timelines.” Speaking to the Defense Writers Group Feb. 28 in Washington, D.C., Moseley said the missive would accompany the Rand Corp. study on intratheater airlift for Congress. The study, which explores the Air Force-Army requirements for the C-27J, is now in the hands of OSD’s program analysis and evaluation division where it is undergoing a sufficiency review, he said. Then it will be handed over to Congress. The existing plan has been to buy 78 C-27Js, including 24 for the Air Force. But Moseley said he anticipates that the joint number will grow to “about 125 airplanes.” Air National Guard and even active duty units may fly USAF’s inventory of them, he said. Air Force Special Operations Command is also exploring a gunship variant of the platform. “I am a big believer in that airplane for a variety of reasons,” Moseley said of the C-27J. Among them is the opportunity that the aircraft offers as a means of building partnership capacity with friends and partner nations around the globe that cannot afford the larger, more expensive C-130J. The Air Force has requested $32.2 million for the C-27J in Fiscal 2009, including $5.4 million for advanced procurement of its first three aircraft, which would be built in Fiscal 2010.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.