For a few weeks now, defence and aviation industry sources have been buzzing about fate of the fleet of a couple of dozen C-27 Spartans sold to the U.S. air force by their manufacturer, Italy’s Alenia. To cut its monster-sized military budget, the U.S. is mothballing its C-27 (right) program and may be ready to sell the planes, possibly to Canada. Canada, for a decade, has been trying to ‘procure’ new fixed-wing search-and-rescue (FWSAR) planes to not only replace our 50-year-old fleets of West Coast-based FWSAR craft but also boost our FWSAR capability in the rest of Canada. Continue reading Will Ottawa turn to the U.S. to solve its search-and-rescue plane problem?
