Ferry Dust: Australia Preps for its New C-27J Transports

DHC-4’s final approach

Australia’s 2009 defense white paper made a wide range of commitments, one of which involved replacing the outstanding service provided by Australia’s gull-winged DHC-4 Caribou short takeoff light tactical transports. That particular project had been proposed and delayed repeatedly for over 20 years. In February 2009, the planes it was meant to replace finally had to be retired, after 45 years of service. Without a replacement.

There have been a range of competitions in this class on the international market. While some customers like US Special Forces have chosen Sikorsky subsidiary PZL Mielec’s M-28 Skytruck, most of these competitions are between Airbus Military’s C295, and Alenia’s C-27J Spartan. The Spartan is faster than the C295, and can carry larger and heavier loads, including light helicopters and patrol vehicles. The C-295M offers endurance advantages, and lower operating costs. Neither can match the Caribou’s short take-off performance, but they’re what’s available, and different countries have made different choices. Now, Australia has made its choice: a sole-source C-27J buy, with deliveries slated to begin in 2015.

NATO, Ukraine, and Russia: Noise and Confusion

• A Western defense official, quoted by Reuters after last week’s NATO summit establishing a renewed spearhead force, has the quote to wrap up last week:

“In some ways, we are solving a non-existent problem because we can’t solve the existing ones.”

• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ reaction to the NATO summit in Wales:

“The results of the summit have graphically demonstrated that NATO whose policy is dictated by the United States and hawks in some European capitals has been striving for military domination in Europe in violation of the agreements on the importance of a system of equitable and indivisible security for the Euro- Atlantic region, that have been reaffirmed numerously at all levels.”

• Russia is working on refreshing its war doctrine, with hardliners advocating [Moscow Times] tough anti-NATO rhetoric.

• Kyiv Post has an unofficial translation of the ceasefire agreement negotiated between Ukraine and Russia last Friday. This includes “early local elections in accordance with the Law of Ukraine ‘On temporary order of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions’.”

• Yet fighting was reported [WaPo] in Eastern Ukraine after the agreement had been signed.

• a Ukrainian official said on Sunday that 5 NATO countries had agreed to provide weapons to Ukraine, but 4 of these 5 countries quickly denied the claim [Reuters].

Middle East and Beyond

• Conflict Armament Research, a data-gathering and consulting firm, has been cataloging the significant amount of US-made weapons seen in the hands [WaPo] of ISIL fighters.

• A French journalist formerly held hostage by ISIS says [WSJ] one of his captors was Mehdi Nemmouche, a Franco-Algerian national under arrest for allegedly shooting 4 people at a Jewish museum in Belgium.

Business Development

• The US Air Force will hold an industry day [FBO] on follow on to the Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) on Sept. 30th-Oct. 2.

Bring Down the Noise

• A Google Gmail veteran lays out what they learned. Given spam’s link to spear-phishing and successful hacking exploits, this is a problem worth defense firms’ close attention.

• Researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland are working on active noise reduction technology that could be applied to jet engines and exhausts. Video below: