The recent scrapping in Afghanistan of 16 Alenia C-27A Spartans, which were meant to serve as the core airlift fleet of the Afghan air force, has refocused attention on the equally problematic saga of C-27J procurement by the Pentagon. The Department of Defense (DoD) has bought only 21 of the 78 C-27Js that it planned for the U.S Air Force and Army. These are still flying in the U.S., but not on missions for which they were originally intended.

The C-27As were former Italian air force G222s that the DoD purchased from Alenia in September 2008 for $287 million as replacements for the Afghan air force’s four Antonov An-32 airlifters. The 30-year-old aircraft were said by NATO’s Air Training Command Afghanistan to be “well-suited” for the country’s mountainous terrain and limited road infrastructure, carrying payloads of up to 20,000 pounds into airstrips as short as 3,000 feet. The contract included refurbishment, modernization and support of the aircraft, which had been stored at Pisa airbase after they were replaced in Italian service by new-production C-27Js.

A training program was set up, and by February 2011, the C-27As had clocked 2,000 hours in Afghan service. But there were serious sustainment issues. In January 2013 the DoD Inspector General reported that spares parts management had been inadequate, and that another $200 million might be needed to assure the future supply of now-unavailable spares. Alenia strongly disputed these findings. Nevertheless, the fleet at Kabul was grounded in March 2013. Instead, the U.S. agreed to supply C-130Hs to the Afghan AF, and the first two were delivered in October 2013.

In mid-2014 the C-27A fleet was sold for scrap for $32,000, according to the U.S. Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), who is investigating the matter. Another four C-27As never reached Afghanistan, and are lying at Ramstein airbase in Germany. The SIGAR also alleges that the three Afghan C-130Hs are short of spares, and under-utilized. The DoD told the SIGAR last month that, together with NATO and the new Afghan government, it is reviewing the country’s medium-airlift requirements. The SIGAR has also been critical of U.S. and NATO helicopter provision to the Afghan air force.

The C-27J entered U.S. service in September 2008 after winning the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) competition for a small tactical transport. The plan was to buy 78 worth $2 billion for the Army to resupply or medevac forward-based units, and for the U.S. Air National Guard (ANG). But in May 2009 the Pentagon reduced the buy to 38 aircraft and decreed that they should all be operated by the ANG, although directly responsive to frontline Army needs when required. Two aircraft were deployed to Afghanistan in 2011-12 for this purpose, with evident success.

But in January 2012 the Pentagon announced that the Air Force would withdraw the ANG’s C-27J fleet in FY2013, a victim of budget pressures. Despite protests from the state governors, the 16 aircraft already delivered were flown into storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. Another five aircraft in advanced construction were completed. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has subsequently received 14 of the C-27Js, with the other seven going to the Army’s Special Operations Command. The USCG uses them for transport and SAR, and the Army for free-fall parachute training. The USCG has curtailed a buy of the rival Airbus D&S CN235 (HC-144A) transport, its first choice for the transport and SAR mission.