The C-27 emerged out of the FUTURE ARMY CARGO aircraft program as a replacement for the C-23 only found in the Army National Guard. The C-23 (Shorts 330) was the replacement for the Carribou. The Guard got the C-23 in 1991 after the active Air Force got rid of their C-23A models in Europe. We acquired additional aircraft to round out a fleet of about 44 airframes.
The C-27 was a CONUS only cargo asset. It is not a military airplane in any capacity. It has metal fuel tanks! It has no military radios either. The C-23 was deployed to combat in Iraq for political reasons steming from the age old fight between the Army and MAC over lift assets. It quickly became a valuable tool for the Army filling a gap between the C-130 requiring no outside approval.
We flew the aircraft in a tactical profile all over Iraq and suffered numerous casualties but luckily, no fatalities. She was the little plane who could. She was not only ugly, but slow and under powered too. We worked miracles with that plane to include flying it with NVGs with an expedient modification. We were the first to fly an Army aircraft with NVGs in combat.
The active Army was so impressed with the asset that they piggy backed on to the Guard's acquisition program and asked for 100 aircraft for the active component. The AF freaked out over this and began a political battle to stop it. The Guard was originally going to acquire about 30 airframes to replace the C-23 which did not threaten the AF. The Army Guard got screwed and here we are. The Guard did get some airframes but I don't know the current status as I now fly HH60s in the Air Guard.
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I fly junk, so you don't have to.
Last edited by Atlas Shrugged; 02-07-2012 at 09:13 AM.
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