Would the trash haulers among you comment if the C27 Spartan a reasonable bang for your buck?
There's a definite niche for these things and were we not a bankrupt third world air force I reckon we would see an RAF mini fleet of these things involved in the small scale intra-theatre lift we currently burn up C130 hours on. They're also perfect for patrol insertions into smaller strips etc. Cheaper to run and, generally speaking, they deliver the same effect as the C130 (certainly in terms of how we use them).
To be honest though, UK Plc would get more operational utility out of such a platform if, sadly, it were operated by the Army. The level of risk avoidance in the RAF is now at such a level that it is frankly embarassing having to explain to the Army why you can't do X, Y and/or Z any more.....
