16 Hardly Used C-27s Scrapped for 6 Cents a Lb

The C-27A fleet of aircraft - 16 located at Kabul International Airport - have been scrapped for 6 cents a pound or a total of $32,000. These 16 aircraft (plus four more at a USAF base in Germany) were part of a $486 million program to upgrade the Afghan Air Force (AAF). The aircraft, which had been parked at the ramp at Kabul International Airport, were towed to the far side of the airport and scrapped by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). An Afghan company took the aircraft away. This controversial aircraft program is a glaring example of waste by the Department of Defense. The U.S. Air Force seems to have switched in mid-stream by deserting a program (that admittedly had some maintenance and contract issues) of 20 perfectly good transport aircraft ideally suited for the Afghan Air Force and the terrain in Afghanistan for a new program of four C-130s. The C-27s were put aside because of some maintenance and parts issues; only to be replaced by the more complicated C-130. The more one reads into this whole issue the more confusing it becomes. Thus far the U.S. Air Force has not come up with a good explanation of why the C-27A program failed (and why they didn't fix it), why they thought that four more complex airplanes (C-130s) were better than 20 less complex airplanes (C-27As), and why they scrapped 16 planes instead of finding buyers for the planes (or parts of the planes - such as the engines?). Things that make you go "Hmmmm". Read all about it in Stars and Stripes, Reuters, Defense News, The New York Times, and Bloomberg News.