The latest arrivals at Tucson’s Air Force boneyard are brand-new C-27J cargo planes that have cost the Pentagon $567 million dollars. Defense Update has the details:

New cargo planes on order for the U.S. Air Force are being delivered straight into storage in the Arizona desert because the military has no use for them, a Dayton Daily News investigation found. A dozen nearly new C-27J Spartans have already been taken out of the US Air National Guard service and shipped to the so-called ‘boneyard’ at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Five more are expected to be built by April 2014, all of which are headed to the boneyard unless another use for them is found.

The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 C-27J aircraft since 2007, according to purchasing officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Sixteen had been delivered by the end of September. The Air Force almost had to buy more of the planes against its will, the newspaper found. A solicitation issued from Wright-Patterson in May sought vendors to build more C-27Js, citing Congressional language requiring the military to spend money budgeted for the planes, despite Pentagon protests.

The RYOT news site suggests there might be some hope the project has not been a total waste:

Despite the disastrous situation, moving the planes to the aircraft boneyard is an opportunity to recoup some of the losses. The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group maintains planes for the government to sell to other countries. The boneyard is one of the few profitable parts of the military, making $11 for every $1 of funding.

Several countries are interested in buying the aircraft, notably Austrailia. Though the president of Alenia has stated that if the US resells the C-27J’s, Alenia will not provide assistance or parts for its upkeep, a move designed to cut monetary losses accrued by the company.

Here’s a video report on the situation:

This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2013.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

7 replies on “Brand-New Air Force Planes Dumped at Tucson Boneyard”

  1. What a waste of tax payers money. Its like the waste we paid our congress for shutting down the government.

  3. They should take the handful of F35s (that are now flown ONLY during the day when there are no clouds around) directly to the bone-yard and save us another $1.5 Trillion for a useless plane we don’t need.

  4. I wonder how many campaign contributions it took to make sure these unneeded planes were built whether the Pentagon wanted them or not?

  5. This is equipment the Republicans insisted that had to be built to save jobs in their states. The Defense said NO, but Republicans love to waste money and create more debt. The debt they say Obama makes. They would rather cut food stamps, day care, education, this is the Republican scheme

  6. I love it when a reporter produces an article and only tells half the story. The C-27J was acquired to be a “joint” cargo aircraft, flown by both the army and the air force. It was not bought to replace the C-130, it was bought to complement the C-130 and the army’s CH-47 helicopters to provide airlift capabilities into small austere airfields, many of these airfields a C-130 cannot land at. The aircraft would have saved millions of dollars compared to the cost to operate the CH-47 helicopters and the refurbishing costs after every few months of operating in the desert. The C-27J also proved that it was a cost savings when four aircraft were deployed to Afghanistan in 2011. An army report stated that the four aircraft saved approximately $30 million in the nine months it was there by transporting smaller loads that would have been transported by a C-130 aircraft, and the aircraft got rave reviews by the troops in the field. Do the math, a two engine aircraft costs less to operate than a four engine aircraft. The air force then decided to take the aircraft away from the army and then cut it right after its takeover. Why? POLITICS!!! You see, the C-130 is built by Lockheed-Martin, an american company that is represented by a lot of overpaid retired air force generals. These generals still roam the halls of air force headquarters building lobbying their product. The C-27J is built by Alenia, an Italian company that does not have the same lobbying power. These air force generals falsified the cost data comparison of the C-130 and the C-27J to save their careers. So yes, the air force is sending brand new aircraft to the boneyard even though it would provide a cost savings and it was the right tool for the troops in the field. That my friend is the rest of the story!!!

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