Key Field selected as Preferred C-27J Training Site

Key Field Air National Guard Base in Meridian, Miss., is the Air Force’s preferred location to bed down two C-27J transports that will serve as training assets in the 38-aircraft C-27 fleet, service officials announced Wednesday. “This base is the right location for these two C-27J training aircraft,” said Kathleen Ferguson, USAF’s deputy assistant secretary for installations. If these plans do not change upon completion of the environmental impact analysis, the two aircraft would arrive in the second half of Fiscal 2014. Key Field is already slated to host four operational C-27s. It beat out Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport in Ohio, the other candidate training site. With this announcement, another piece of the Air Guard’s C-27 basing puzzle is falling in place. Already, operational C-27s are slated for Mansfield, Baltimore, Md., Battle Creek, Mich., East Granby, Conn., and Fargo, N.D. USAF also wants to station them at Great Falls, Mont. (SAF/PA report by Andre Kok)