An agreement between the House and Senate Armed Services Committees this week directs the Air Force to transfer 14 excess C-27J cargo aircraft to the Coast Guard has part of a somewhat complicated rotation of aircraft between various government agencies, which means the Coast Guard will likely halt its purchase of HC-144A maritime patrol aircraft at the current 18 on order.
The Coast Guard’s current plans call for acquiring 36 of the HC-144A medium-range patrol aircraft from Spain’s CASA, which is a division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. With 18 of the aircraft on order, and 15 delivered, the service has had a strategic pause in the program since FY ’13 to evaluate its options amid tight budgets.
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| Alenia Aermacchi C-27 aircraft. Photo: Alenia |
Currently there is no money identified in the Coast Guard’s capital improvement program for additional HC-144A aircraft, Vice Adm. John Currier, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on the Coast Guard yesterday. He said obtaining the 14 C-27Js closes out the mission gap for medium-range surveillance planes.
To complete the HC-144A acquisition of 36 aircraft would require another $500 million to $600 million but that money “is not there,” meaning that obtaining the C-27Js doesn’t free up funds pegged in out-year budgets for other programs, Currier said.
The C-27 is supplied by Alenia Aermacchi North America, a division of Italy’s
Finmeccanica.
Yesterday’s congressional hearing examined the Coast Guard’s execution of its mission goals in an era of constrained federal budgets. Currier said that the service’s “operational gaps are in the offshore,” particularly with its medium and high-endurance surface vessels.
Under the complex arrangement detailed in the conference report between the two Armed Services Committees, seven of Coast Guard HC-130H long-range patrol planes will be transferred to the Air Force, which will modify the planes to firefighting tankers for the U.S. Forest Service.
The conference report also directs the Army to transfer eight C-23B aircraft to Alaska and for the Secretary of Defense to transfer up to 15 C-23Bs to the Forest Service. The Air Force has already transferred seven excess C-27Js to the Special Operations Command.
A Coast Guard spokesman told Defense Daily yesterday that to date the Pentagon has not agreed to transfer the excess C-27Js to the Coast Guard.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the Coast Guard subcommittee, stated in his opening remarks that in FY ’12 the Coast Guard met less than half of its mission performance measures and that for the last five years has never done better than 61 percent.
Hunter said that the funding is not available for the Coast Guard to complete its recapitalization of legacy assets with new cutters and aircraft. It’s time, he said, “for the Coat Guard to conduct a thorough review of its program of record and for the service, the [Obama] Administration, and Congress to make some hard decisions about how to rebalance the capabilities and mission requirements.”