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Obama cancels defense programs tied to Ohio jobs

The administration cancelled the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle after $3.2 billion was spent since 1996 to develop a next-generation amphibious-assault vehicle. Prototypes were being built at the General Dynamics Corp.-operated plant in Lima.

HANDOUT The administration cancelled the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle after $3.2 billion was spent since 1996 to develop a next-generation amphibious-assault vehicle. Prototypes were being built at the General Dynamics Corp.-operated plant in Lima.

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Two defense programs that cost billions of dollars to develop ended up on the scrap heap in President Obama's budget proposal. The Obama administration plans to terminate the C-27J transport plane, which cost the Army and Air Force a combined $1 billion in recent years.

HANDOUT Two defense programs that cost billions of dollars to develop ended up on the scrap heap in President Obama's budget proposal. The Obama administration plans to terminate the C-27J transport plane, which cost the Army and Air Force a combined $1 billion in recent years.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 8:25 AM Monday, February 20, 2012

The Army and the Air Force have spent a combined $1 billion in recent years to develop and acquire the C-27J transport plane, a program the Obama administration is canceling after the first batch of planes have been delivered.

Meanwhile, the Marine Corps has spent $3.2 billion since the mid-1990s to develop a next-generation amphibious assault vehicle, called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. The administration halted that program last year.

Both programs have fallen victim to cost-cutting as Washington looks for ways to reduce defense spending and redirect taxpayer money into priority programs that include long-range air and sea power, unmanned aircraft, intelligence and surveillance, and cyber warfare capabilities. They also represent a pattern that is all too familiar with development of expensive war machines: When programs are cast aside because of shifting priorities or budget realities, it often comes after billions of dollars have already been spent on them.

“The C-27 is a case study in government waste,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

“The Army had a need, the government funded it and, now that the planes are being delivered, the decision is to discard all of them,” Thompson said.

Ohio jobs were tied to both canceled programs.

The C-27J Spartans are part of the flying mission at the Ohio Air National Guard’s Mansfield base, causing some in the state’s congressional delegation to worry about that outpost’s future as Washington prepares anew to consider closing some bases to save money. The propeller-driven planes were also intended for bases in other states.

And before the Marines decided to upgrade the current generation of amphibious assault vehicles, the General Dynamics Corp.-operated plant in Lima built seven prototypes of the now-scrapped Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown,  D-Ohio, said the state’s congressional delegation will try to save both programs, despite the administration’s decisions.

Beyond providing jobs in Ohio, the manufacture of the planes and amphibious vehicles fill roles in national security and support job skills in America’s manufacturing base that need continuing work to maintain them, Brown said in a telephone interview.

“If you stop it and then try to restart it three, four, five years from now, you could lose that,” Brown said.

The C-27J was billed as a cargo plane that could land in rugged terrain — such as Afghanistan — and in tighter places than the Air Force’s larger C-130 transport could. The plan called for the Air National Guard to fly the planes. The Army initially expressed a need for the transport capability and the Air Force joined in.

By the end of the government’s current fiscal year on Sept. 30, the Air Force will have spent $540 million on the C-27J program and the Army $509 million, for a combined total of $1.05 billion, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy said last week.

The government had planned to buy 38 of the C-27J planes, which had a list price of $29 million in fiscal 2010. The Defense Department has contracted to buy 21 of the planes and 11 have been delivered, Cassidy said.

Defense contractors L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Alenia North America and Global Military Aircraft Systems lead the C-27’s manufacturing team. The Defense Department selected the plane in 2007 to fill Army and Air Force requirements to deliver cargo and supplies to forward tactical units in remote locations with short, unimproved runways, according to the manufacturers.

The government now considers the C-27J program to be terminated. The Pentagon is determining the fate of the planes, which could be cannibalized for parts, among other possible alternatives, Cassidy said.

Expeditionary  Fighting Vehicle

The Marine Corps canceled its Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program in January 2011 “with the idea that savings from the program could be put into a new program,” said Emanuel Pacheco, spokesman for the Marines’ advanced amphibious assault program in Quantico, Va. That program includes the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the prior land-water assault vehicle, an envisioned next-generation Amphibious Combat Vehicle and a personnel carrier that is being developed.

The Marines and Navy are evaluating alternatives for a new amphibious assault vehicle, Pacheco said. The Defense Department could be ready to request proposals from contractors in the second quarter of 2013, he said.

In the meantime, the government has been paying for a gradual shutdown of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program and funding testing of the prototypes by the contractor, General Dynamics Land Systems.

“The government and the contractor felt that was in the best interests of both, because we felt there were still things to learn to help determine the way ahead,” Pacheco said.

The Obama administration’s stated strategy to convert the military to a smaller, leaner, more agile force entails a broad array of program cuts that Congress might reverse or modify, but there are increases or firm commitments to priority programs.

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