Originally Posted by
golder
... The C-27J that they canceled, was also a good one.
The C-27J craziness was not an example of politics, but rather of bureaucratic infighting and "It's MY sandbox".
Briefly: Army felt it was spending way too much money hauling people and cargo in CH-47s between Army bases that had runways . Plus, this used up precious Chinook flight hours. So they thought they could gain a double benefit by procuring a smallish cargo aircraft to perform this mission (not to takes forces/supplies into combat). USAF, who believes that by Divine Right they should run all fixed wing bitterly opposed this, saying it was not needed, it was their mission even if they didn't have the available assets to do it and that was what the C-130 was for anyway. Congress, though, thought the idea made sense.
USAF then pivoted and said, "Well, maybe it's not such a bad idea, maybe we should get some too for lighter missions. We'd like to participate as well and Army, we're your Best Pal". Thus was born the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA). In due time, a competition was held and was won by a partnership of Alenia Aeronautica (who had designed the G.222 on which the C-27J is based) with L3Communications, forming the Global Military Aircraft Systems GMAS company to bid the C-27J. Boeing later joined. Army had leadership because they were going to be buying substantially more.
As production got underway, each service placed their own orders. A curious thing was soon discovered. Even though the AF and Army versions were virtually identical except for a few radios and paint, thanks to their contracting acumen USAF was paying twice what Army was paying per aircraft. The solution seemed obvious: USAF said it would all work out better if management of the program was transferred to them. for reasons I've never figured out, DoD agreed and so AF took over. Well, it wasn't to long after that that AF announced they were killing the C-27J program because it was not needed, it was their mission even if they didn't have the available assets to do it and that was what the C-130 was for anyway. They also said the plane cost too much, but there were a few details there that weren't addressed.
The few that made into service were soon retired and those still under construction were flown directly from the factory to Davis-Monthan. Army had to go back to using CH-47s.
In a footnote, USAF tried to recover some of the cost by offering the Spartans on the world market. Alenia, though was thoroughly pissed because they had geared up for substantial production for the program and were ending up out in the cold. They were also offering the C-27J on the world market separately, and were not too happy about having to compete against these C-27Js which would be offered at fire sale prices. They announced to the world that they would provide no support for any of these aircraft sold outside the US, which of course rendered them unsalable and the US taxpayer ended up with nothing for all the money expended so far.
The final result was that the 21 built remained in US hands. Seven C-27Js went to SOCOM, who was very happy with them, and the remaining 14 went to the Coast Guard who was thrilled because they got them for free, which did wonders for their budget.