Odierno Signs Airlift MOU

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said he signed a memorandum of understanding this morning setting up an arrangement for the Air Force to provide ground support to the Army using C-130s rather than C -27Js, which the Army hoped would replace its retiring C-23 Sherpas.

Prior to his announcement this morning at the Pentagon during a budget briefing, Odierno previewed this arrangement at a Jan. 25 Association of the United States Army breakfast in Arlington, VA. He said then that the Air Force's C-27J cargo aircraft program was likely to be canceled and that the services were working together on an agreement to require the Air Force to provide support using C-130s.

A Pentagon white paper released Jan. 26 reveals C-130 aircraft would provide direct air support for the Army's ground forces after the Defense Department weighed all options. “The C-27J was developed and procured to provide a niche capability to directly support Army urgent needs in difficult environments such as Afghanistan where we thought the C-130 might not be able top operate effectively,” the white paper reads.

“However, in practice, we did not experience the anticipated airfield constraints for C-130 operations in Afghanistan and expect these constraints to be marginal in future scenarios,” the document states.