From the factory to the boneyard

[PhreeZone 15]

This is an infuriating waste of nearly a billion dollars of tax payer money via the military. They are taking brand new C-27j aircraft that are rolling right off the factory lines and flying them to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the desert for long term storage since they have no purpose for the plane with the current operational needs. Cost of each plane is right around $27 million and they have 5 in production that will be flown right for storage by April of 2014 and have already sent over a dozen that have been built in 2007 or newer there. It looks like they found new missions for them starting in 2016 and in the meantime they just sit around collecting dust and needing maintenance.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/1b-in-air-force-cargo-planes-sent-to-boneyard-get-new-missions-1.263134

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[kallend 1,623]

It's OK, the cut in food stamps will go a long way towards paying for them.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Arvoitus 1]

Aren't those planes built in American factories, by American workers? So they're using the tax money to keep some Americans employed. Sure they could hand that money out as unemployment benefits, but this way at least some folks are kept busy, instead of sitting at home.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[DiverMike 5]

Quote

but this way at least some folks are kept busy, instead of sitting at home.

I am all for strengthening the middle class, but couldn't we find some way to spend billions of dollars keeping people busy producing something we (or someone else) really needs?

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[kawisixer01 0]

Like maybe fixing failing infrastructure instead of building more tools of war?

[champu 1]

I'm not familiar with the C-27j Spartan program, but there's a bit in the article that makes the situation clear as mud...

Quote

Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project On Government Oversight in Washington, D.C., said the aircraft was a good idea when it began as a joint program between the Army and the Air Force, but the program’s outcome shows the influence defense contractor Lockheed Martin has in limiting competition from a rival competitor. Lockheed Martin manufactures the C-130 aircraft, which began production deliveries to the U.S. military in the 1950s. The latest variant, the C-130J, began deliveries in 1999, according to the Air Force.

Jack Crisler, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics vice president of air mobility business development, declined comment through a spokeswoman. “We do not have a comment about the U.S. Government’s acquisition and programmatic decisions regarding non-Lockheed Martin-owned aircraft,” a company statement said.

Last year, four C-27Js once assigned to the 179th Airlift Wing at Mansfield Air National Guard Base were sent to the desert storage facility. The Mansfield unit deployed with the new plane to Afghanistan in 2011. When the Air Force announced its intent to pull the plane out of service to cut costs, U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, met with former Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley to urge the service to maintain the C-27J program to keep jobs in Ohio and for national defense, Dayton Daily News archives show.

Making a campaign stop in Mansfield in 2012, President Barack Obama vowed to find a new mission for the Ohio base and eight, older C-130 cargo planes were assigned to the unit.

And earlier in the article...

Quote

As part of the transfer arrangement with the Coast Guard outlined by Congress, the Coast Guard will provide seven aging C-130H planes to the Air Force, which will pay up to $130 million to refurbish the planes for firefighting service with the U.S. Forest Service

So are they claiming that the C-27j had an ill-conceived mission but was just purchased anyway directly to mothballs, and now they are trying their best to make use of them? Or are they saying the C-27j was the right plane for the job but Lockheed convinced the military to buy more C-130s displacing the new C-27j aircraft from their original purpose?

This story doesn't make any sense. They don't explain what Lockheed and the C-130s have to do with anything.

In either case though... too many planes. This is the kind of thing you get when congress stops providing critical oversight of spending at the pentagon and instead just dictates spending to the pentagon.

[airdvr 197]

Quote

In August 2011, two C-27J aircraft flown by Air National Guard aircrews, augmented with Army National Guard personnel, began operations at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.[35][36][37] In the eleven months from August 2011 to June 2012, the C-27Js of the 179th Airlift Wing, followed by the 175th Wing executed more than 3200 missions transporting over 25,000 passengers, and 1400 tons of cargo.[4] By exercising tactical control of the C-27Js, the U.S. Army was able to employ helicopters in a much more efficient fashion, splitting missions between the two platforms to make best use of the strengths of each.[38]
While the U.S. Army had indicated that their fleet of 54 aircraft posed a moderate risk to mission fulfillment in 2005; the USAF has moved to cancel the program entirely in early 2012.[39] On 26 January 2012, the U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to remove all 38 C-27Js on order from the U.S. Air Force's inventory based on excess intratheater airlift force structure and budgetary pressures.[40] The C-27J's duties are to be taken by the U.S. Air Force's C-130s.[41] In February 2012, Alenia warned that it would not provide support for C-27Js resold by the United States to international customers which could compete against future production orders.[42] In March 2012, it was reported that the U.S. Coast Guard is considering taking over the aircraft from the U.S. Air Force.[43] On 23 March 2012, the U.S. Air Force announced that it will cut the C-27J from its inventory in fiscal year 2013 after determining budgetary offsets were needed for other programs and the intratheater requirements had changed under their new Pacific strategy.[44][45] The C-27J cuts met with fierce opposition from the Air National Guard, legislators and state government.


C-27J with prop vortices condensation at the Paris Air Show
As of April 2012, the USAF was continuing to shut down the program, in anticipation that Congress will support its budget request to do so.[46] In July 2012 the US Air Force suspended flight operations following a flight control system failure.[47] By 2013 newly built C-27Js were being sent directly to the Davis–Monthan Air Force Base boneyard.[48] This was to make room for C-130s, as the USAF found itself with too many tactical transports.[49] The Air Force had spent $567 million on 21 C-27Js since 2007, with 16 delivered by the end of September 2013. 12 had been taken out of service and sent to "the Boneyard," with five more to be built by April 2014, all of which were headed to the boneyard unless another use was found. The five under construction are too near completion to simply halt building. Sequestration budget cuts caused the Air Force to want to divest the aircraft, with a C-27J costing $308 million over its lifespan, in comparison with a C-130's $213 million 25-year lifespan cost.[50]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alenia_C-27J_Spartan

I think it's simply a case of a manufacturer having a signed contract with terms that protect it from loss if the order gets cancelled midway through production. Perhaps whomever was in charge should have read the contract before they signed it.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[billvon 2,400]

>but couldn't we find some way to spend billions of dollars keeping people busy
>producing something we (or someone else) really needs?

Sure, and we can do it a lot cheaper. The hundreds of millions we have spent on solar incentives over the past few years has resulted in the country adding 24,000 jobs a year. And what do we get out of it? More energy, more jobs, less dependence on fossil fuels and less pollution.


========
US Solar Employment Growing at 10 Times the National Average
Andrew Burger
Thursday January 30th, 2014

. . .

The potential to spur sustainable, well-paying job growth – as well as lasting environmental and social benefits – has been one of the principal reasons the president has espoused policies and legislation that promote and foster development of renewable energy and clean technology. Though policies, legislation and regulations aimed at fostering “green” job growth have been criticized, refuted, opposed and undermined, the latest report from the Solar Foundation reveals that the U.S. solar energy sector continues to create jobs at a much higher rate than the economy overall.

Nearly 24,000 Americans got jobs in the U.S. solar industry in 2013, bringing the total number of U.S. solar industry jobs to 142,698 as of November 2013, according to the Solar Foundation’s, “National Solar Jobs Census 2013.”

"Employment in the U.S. solar industry has been rising at a nearly 20 percent rate since 2012, 10 times faster than that for average national employment, according to the Solar Foundation’s report. The U.S. solar energy sector added an average 56 new employees a day between September 2012 and November 2013, surpassing forecasts."
=============

[baronn 111]

Lift has got to be 50 a plane. Sounds like its time to plan a Boogie in the desert or the next World record

[regulator 0]

As an owner of a boat that has a 2 stroke outboard engine I have to run it at least once a month to keep it in good working order. Are aircraft engines like this as well?

[BartsDaddy 4]

Two stroke engines can go years without running and startup and run fine. You just have to properly shut them down for storage. Gas in the carb or tank is a no no.

Handguns are only used to fight your way to a good rifle

[shropshire 0]

Arvoitus

Aren't those planes built in American factories, by American workers? So they're using the tax money to keep some Americans employed. Sure they could hand that money out as unemployment benefits, but this way at least some folks are kept busy, instead of sitting at home.

Wow I hope you're joking ... otherwise that is such a fucking stupid waste of time and money...... Sure use government money to keep people in work but make it USEFUL ...

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Andy9o8 0]

Sometimes the crux of the back-story - what's really behind this - gets buried in the telling. Here it is:

Quote

Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project On Government Oversight in Washington, D.C., said the aircraft was a good idea when it began as a joint program between the Army and the Air Force, but the program’s outcome shows the influence defense contractor Lockheed Martin has in limiting competition from a rival competitor. Lockheed Martin manufactures the C-130 aircraft, which began production deliveries to the U.S. military in the 1950s. The latest variant, the C-130J, began deliveries in 1999, according to the Air Force.

Jack Crisler, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics vice president of air mobility business development, declined comment through a spokeswoman. “We do not have a comment about the U.S. Government’s acquisition and programmatic decisions regarding non-Lockheed Martin-owned aircraft,” a company statement said.