US Department of Defense intends to cancel the program of delivery of military-technical cooperation G-222 for the Afghan Air Force
The US Department of Defense intends to cancel the delivery program of the Afghan Air Force to the tactical military transport aircraft G-222 / C-27A, despite objections from the company Alenia Aermakki.
Discussing with the correspondent of Janes Defense Weekly a message to the Wall Street Journal about the intention to terminate a three-year contract for the supply of aircraft, the representative of Alenia Aermakki said that the company still "believes in the program’s success and intends to discuss its future status at all levels ".
This statement followed the notice received by Alenia Aermakki 28 on December 2012 of the intention to terminate the contract for the maintenance and repair of G-222 in March 2013 of the year (instead of 2014 of the year). To date, from the 20 platforms specified by the contracts signed earlier, the USAF has transferred 16, another 4 are in Italy waiting for the transfer (one of them has already been accepted by the USAF).
This decision is the last in a series of failures of “Alenia Aermacky” in the United States (earlier, in February 2012, the United States Air Force refused to buy C-27J Spartan aircraft).
Despite the deployment of a large group of specialists in Afghanistan, the operation of G-222 aircraft due to reliability problems was halted twice - in December 2011 of the year and in March of 2012 of the year. This led to the need to use Cessna-208 aircraft and Mi-17 helicopters for the transportation of goods.
According to media reports, the US Department of Defense intends to curtail the program due to the inability of Alenia Aermacchi to ensure that the required number of aircraft is ready to perform tasks for the intended purpose. The Italian company, in turn, refutes these claims. According to “Alenia Aermacchi”, on average 12 from 16 aircraft located in Afghanistan are constantly ready to fly (the rest are serviced or repaired). In addition, the contract requirements provide for the readiness to perform the tasks of 6 aircraft based at Kabul and 8 aircraft at Kandahar after the start of operation of the base.
The company "Alenia Aermakki" announced that 20 allocated a million dollars of its own funds for spare parts for aircraft in order to maintain the contract in force. Spare parts were removed from the purchased aircraft G-222, which were stored in Argentina.
In the coming weeks, the US Air Force will suspend flight operations of the G-222 / C-27A in Afghanistan, however, no decision has been made yet on the future fate of already transferred aircraft, related auxiliary equipment and spare parts.
In connection with these plans, Alenia Aermacchi insists on holding urgent talks with program customers, including the Air Force, the Department of Defense, and the US Department of State.
The decision to cancel the G-222 / C-27A program is made four years after the conclusion of the contract for the supply of the first 18 aircraft and three and a half years after the roll-out of the first restored aircraft at the plant in Naples.
According to the contract, the G-222 aircraft built from 1977 to 1985 were restored and modernized by Alenia Aermacchi.
G-222 aircraft must replace the outdated An-32. In the event of a rejection of the G-222, the only tactical BTA aircraft in service with the Afghan Air Force will remain the Cessna-208B.
To date, the implementation of the G-222 / C-27A program for the Afghan Air Force has spent 600 million dollars. According to the representatives of Alenia Aermakki, it is necessary to allocate 60 million dollars to bring it to the desired result, and the cancellation of the contract is inexpedient, since the main investments have already been made, crew training has begun and the corresponding infrastructure has been deployed. Considering that considerable time will be required for the purchase of new aircraft, the formation of the Afghan Air Force by the time originally determined by 2014 a year seems unrealistic.
Despite the fact that representatives of the US Air Force and Afghanistan do not comment on potential solutions, indirect signs indicate that this is about the delivery of Hercules C-130 aircraft to the Afghan Air Force. Although this aircraft has great potential, it is more difficult to operate and more expensive. In addition, crew training will be required again.
According to Alenia Aermacchi, the choice of C-130 will not alleviate many of the problems associated with the G222 program, including the level of training of Afghan personnel, the lack of space for maintenance and ground infrastructure. Moreover, due to the complexity of the equipment of the American aircraft, these problems will be further aggravated.
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