First C-27J Transfer to Coast Guard

The Coast Guard took delivery of the first of 14 former Air National Guard C-27J transports it is slated to receive. The airplane, which formerly served at the Mississippi ANG’s schoolhouse at Key Field in Meridian, was ferried on Nov. 13 from the Air Force’s aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., to CGAS Elizabeth City, N.C., according to the boneyard’s Facebook page. Technicians will refurbish the second C-27J destined for the Coast Guard for delivery by the end of November, Teresa Pittman, spokeswoman for Davis-Monthan’s 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, told Air Force Magazine. She noted that the first C-27J was stored still in Army markings left over from the time of the joint Air Force-Army C-27 program. The Coast Guard is passing seven HC-130s to the US Forest Service and curtailing its buy of HC-177 search aircraft in exchange for the C-27Js. This move is expected to save the Coast Guard approximately one-half billion dollars in acquisition costs. The rest of the Air Force’s 21 C-27s are earmarked for transfer ?to US Special Operations Command.