By Emelie Rutherford
The Air Force’s top officer said yesterday the number of C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) could be increased above the 38 airplanes proposed in the Pentagon’s budget, but predicted the program’s transfer to the Air Force will not change.
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) was among the senators who quizzed Air Force leaders yesterday on the Pentagon’s call to transfer the nascent Army-Air Force small-cargo-airplane program to Air Force control and cut the buy from 78 to 38 aircraft. The aircraft are under contract with L-3 Communications [LLL] and Alenia North America.
As the number of JCAs is being reviewed in the new Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told the SASC he sees “38 C-27s as the floor and not the ceiling.”
He noted during the budget hearing that “a number of studies,” including an Army analysis of alternatives conducted mid-decade and more-recent studies by the RAND think tank, suggest 78 JCAs split between the Army and the Air Force is a “valid need.”
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said the JCA “number is going to be revisited.”
“The (Defense) Secretary is open to that discussion later this year,” he added.
Levin asked Schwartz and Donley for feedback on the JCA program to help the committee craft the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill. However, Donley noted that the question over the number of JCAs is not necessarily a matter for the next fiscal year’s defense budget, pointing to ongoing QDR talks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said buying 38 JCAs will carry the Pentagon over the next three fiscal years.
SASC member Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) for his part said he was ” encouraged” Schwartz believes 38 JCAs is a “floor,” telling the four-star general: That “suggests to me that you and I would not have a hard time agreeing that a larger number would be a much better thing for us to do.”
Donley said he expects more discussion this summer on the need for JCAs in relation to Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] C-130 cargo aircraft.
One area that is not up for debate, the Air Force secretary said, is moving the JCA the program to Air Force control.
“Our understanding is that that mission is now shifted to the Air Force,” Donley said.
Still, he and Schwartz said, transitioning the program management from the Army to the Air Force is not instantaneous.
“It will take us well into 2010 in order to accomplish that,” Schwartz said.
Air Force, Army, and National Guard Bureau officials are meeting to determine how to execute a 38-aircraft program and what the basing footprint will be, he said. The officials will make an initial recommendation to Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn by May 30, he added.
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said he was anxious about that report, noting his concern that the JCAs will no longer be fielded to the Army National Guard in Alaska.
Schwartz and Donley emphasized such decisions have not yet been made. The “way forward” report due May 30 will include a “interim description” of talks among the Army, Air Force, and National Guard Bureau, along with a plan for continuing to work out issues such as the program-management transfer, Donley said.
We “certainly won’t have all that work done by the end of this month,” he said.
The Air Force’s top JCA priority, Donley said, is collaborating with the Army to secure theater operational commitments for the aircraft in the fourth quarter of FY ’10, which starts in July 2010.