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Air Force, Army agree on plans for joint cargo aircraft

by Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez
Air Force Print News

6/26/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- With the signing of a memorandum of agreement June 20, the vice chiefs of staff of the Air Force and the Army have agreed on a way ahead for converging the service's independent acquisition programs for a joint cargo aircraft.

Both the Air Force and the Army independently pursued options for a smaller cargo aircraft to fly intratheater airlift missions. In late 2005, the Department of Defense directed the Army's "Future Cargo Aircraft" program and the Air Force's "Light Cargo Aircraft" program be merged into the single "Joint Cargo Aircraft" program.

The agreement, signed by Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John D. W. Corley and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody, spells out how the two services will pursue the new joint program and how each service will use their version of the aircraft.

In March 2005, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council approved the Army's Initial Capabilities Document. That document identified the Army's capability gap in organic airlift. Brig. Gen. Andrew S. Dichter, Air Force deputy director for joint integration, said the JROC recognizes the joint cargo aircraft as a good option to fill the Army's organic airlift need and the Air Force's requirement to provide intratheater airlift in support of all Services. The memorandum of agreement, he said, is an important next step in filling both service's missions.

"They believe (the joint cargo aircraft) is an important capability to fill Army's organic lift," he said. "And for the Air Force we have an intratheater capability gap looming.

"So the bottom line is we are here together to tell you our two services recognize the importance of this mission, we are working together collaboratively and it is an important event today to reach this agreement," General Dichter said.

In the agreement, the Air Force and Army agree on key components of how the program will be run, to include roles and missions, command and control, sustainment, doctrine, standardization and training and integrated testing.

Part of the memorandum of agreement defined the roles of the JCA within each service. For the Army, the aircraft will provide intratheater organic airlift.

"The Army's Future Cargo Aircraft's primary mission is on-demand transport of time-sensitive/mission-critical cargo and key personnel to forward deployed Army units operating in a joint operations area," the agreement reads.

The document also outlined the Army's version could be used as part of the "common user pool," that is, to serve all services in theater, if it were not being used specifically to support Army organic airlift needs.

For the Air Force, the aircraft will provide the service with the capability to provide intratheater airlift full time as part of the common user pool.

The agreement also states that the Air Force and the Army will develop a joint training strategy to ensure both Air Force and Army crew members receive standardized initial training on the aircraft.

The joint cargo aircraft will be a small aircraft developed for both the Army and the Air Force. It will be smaller than the Air Force's C-130 Hercules, but larger than the Army's C-23 Sherpa. Most likely, the aircraft will be a variant of an aircraft already available in the civilian sector and the manufacturer will modify it for military use.

The Air Force and Army will initially purchase 145 of the aircraft, with the Army taking 75 and the Air Force taking 70. Additional purchases of the aircraft will be determined once the on-going analysis of alternatives is complete in summer 2007.