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Air National Guard’s fleet of C-27J transports remains grounded a little more than one week after Aeronautical Systems Center officials at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, suspended flight operations following a flight control problem with one of these airplanes during a training sortie on July 10. “This is a precautionary measure while the Air Force and C-27J industry team investigate the incident,” service spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told the Daily Report on July 18. She added, “The program office is working with the C-27J prime contractor L-3 Communications and the aircraft manufacturer Alenia Aermacchi to resolve the matter as quickly as possible and return the C-27J fleet to normal flight operations.” The Air Force last month ceased operating C-27Js in Afghanistan and service officials have said they do not plan to return the mini airlifters to that theater. Despite the Air Force’s desire to divest the C-27J fleet starting in Fiscal 2013, Congress appears set to prohibit any such plans from kicking in next fiscal year.
When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber. Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto…
