News: Battlefield Airlifter: was there a competition? | ADM June 2012

Minister for Defence Stephen Smith announced at the 2012 Air Power Conference, the same week as the Budget, that the Government has agreed to purchase 10 Alenia C-27J Spartan Battlefield Airlift aircraft at a cost of $1.4 billion through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement.

Smith said that the C-27J was assessed by Defence as the aircraft which best met all the essential capability requirements and provides the best value for money.

“It [C-27J] was assessed as being able to fly further, faster and higher while carrying more cargo and requiring a smaller runway than the other aircraft under consideration,” he said.

“The C-27J has the capacity to carry significant load and still access small, soft, narrow runways that are too short for the C-130J or runways which are unable to sustain repeated use of larger aircraft.

“In Australia, the C-27J can access over 1,900 airfields compared to around 500 for the C-130 Hercules aircraft.”

The first aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2015 with the Initial Operating Capability scheduled for the end of 2016. Initial logistic support, including training for aircrew and maintenance personnel will be provided through the FMS program, utilising the system that has been established in the US.

Defence will also seek a separate agreement with C-27J manufacturer, Alenia, in order to ensure that RAAF can operate, maintain and modify the aircraft throughout its planned life.

The 10 C-27Js will be based at RAAF Base Richmond. With the Government announcing the retirement of the C-130H fleet in the budget, Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown recently visited the Richmond base to confirm to the 170 employees who worked on the C- 130H that their roles would be transferred to the Spartan program without the loss of any jobs.

America’s Defence Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) notified the US Congress of the FMS sale of the Spartans and associated equipment, training and logistical support to Australia on December 16 last year, five months before the announcement at the RAAF Air Power Conference. ADM has investigated previously about how many FMS cases are submitted but not followed through upon, only to find that Defence does not keep records of this. Anecdotally, there are only a handful of cases where a FMS case is formulated and not followed through upon.

The DSCA notification outlines a package including the planes, all electronic systems, spare parts, ferry costs, training, manuals, a flight simulator at $950 million. This is $450 million short of the $1.4 billion announced by Smith.