RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Peruvian Air Force (FAP) has been characterized in the last six decades by acquiring a combination of civil and military standard transport aircraft.
This fact is probably evident with the two L-100-20 air transports that were acquired in the 1970s and are still in service with the FAP and have even recently received a major upgrade of their flight deck with the integration of a modern digital avionics suite, contracted with the Astronautics Corporation of America.
At the time, the FAP even fielded five L-100-20s.
By 2013, a process of transformation of the air transport arm of the Peruvian armed institute began with the selection of the robust C-27J Spartan medium transport aircraft to replace the Antonov An-32Bs, which, although they integrate potent engines (two AI-20D of 5. 180 HP each), its cargo cabin has a shape – long and thin – that complicates the transport of certain equipment, such as high mobility vehicles, of great importance to secure forward positions while waiting for the arrival of heavier vehicles, always within the framework of combined operations, today more relevant than ever in light of the vulnerabilities of armored vehicles, including tanks, to emerging weapons such as combat drones, precision artillery, long-range, among others.
The Peruvian Air Force did not have an easy time selecting the Spartan, as rarely in the history of military procurement in Peru, a comprehensive evaluation process of the two main candidates was carried out: Airbus Defence and Space’s C295, a tremendous sales success that has only consolidated its export leadership position over the years.
And the C-27J Spartan, a more expensive aircraft to acquire and operate than the C295 but designed from the outset as a military platform for tactical airlift, with variant flexibility that puts it in a competitive position vis-à-vis the winglet-equipped C295.
The purchase of new medium transport aircraft was part of a larger program to renew the FAP’s air mobility capabilities, which also included the purchase of a batch of six aircraft of the latest Hercules variant, in a combination of C-130J/C-130J-30 and KC-130J, given that this U.S.-origin aircraft has been well proven in Peru, Its robustness and durability is already legendary, and it also integrates the same type of engines as the C-27J Spartan, the aircraft finally chosen by the FAP for medium transport, generating logistical commonalities that are rare in transport aviation.
Likewise, one of the factors that played a decisive role in the selection of the Spartan was its engines: two Rolls Royce AE-2100-D2A that generate 4,637 SHP each, with modern Dowty R-391 six-blade propellers.
Peru has more than nine airports located above 12,000 feet above sea level. The Ministry of Defense considered of utmost importance that the aircraft to be acquired has power margins that provide an extra to flight safety, thus giving more weight to the technical evaluation than to the economic one, a factor – flight safety – that as of 2018 has been relegated again in the Peruvian Defense sector with the purchase of second or more hands aircraft, with decades of operational use on top of it.
During test flights in Peru with a C295 and a C-27J, the Spartan evidenced that its incorporation would reduce the use of Hercules aircraft in situations requiring higher cargo volumes, regardless of whether the destination is at altitude or not.
The C-27J can carry on board a Humvee type high mobility vehicle, a semi-disassembled Bell 212 helicopter, and the starting equipment of the FAP’s fighter aircraft, taking into account that some of this equipment is 2.48 meters high, only accessible in the Spartan’s cabin.
FAP determined the operating costs not on a flight hour basis but on a mission cost basis. With the Spartan, fewer flights are required to complete missions in a country with the Andes Mountains in the middle of its territory, from north to south, from south to north.
The Spartan has no significant drawbacks for transport missions to the city of Juliaca, at just over 3,800 meters above sea level.
Peru has acquired four examples of the maneuverable and robust C-27J Spartan. The Defense sector was managing plans for the purchase of a total of 12 units for the FAP.
The first contract of around US$122 million for two Spartans was signed in November 2013. The second one of around US$120 million for another two aircraft of the type was signed towards the end of 2014.
However, the C-27J Spartan also has its Achilles heel. Its operating costs.
At the beginning of 2019, thanks to a specific cooperation agreement signed with the Peruvian Ministry of Health, in which the FAP places its air-lifters at the disposal of the Health sector in exchange for compensation to cover operating expenses and maintenance costs, the costs of the Spartan were made public, with data coming from the Peruvian experience with the Spartan and other air-lifters in the FAP’s inventory.
The implementation of the agreement with the Ministry of Health has two appreciable facets: The increase in flight hours of FAP transport aircraft and the transfer of operational and maintenance costs outside the Defense sector.
Such a scheme would be positive to guarantee the health of the patients of the Seguro Integral de Salud (SIS), but not so much for the inventory of the FAP, which no longer has a long-term program to renew its transport aviation, but a strategy of waiting for opportunity purchases in the second-hand market.
The FAP already had to cancel the purchase of a Boeing 737 because it had suffered a ground mishap during the evaluation process for its acquisition.
According to the agreement, the FAP’s C-27J Spartan has a cost per flight hour – at the beginning of 2019 – of PEN 18,325.03, equivalent to US$5,457.08 at the time and currently US$4,903.02. These figures are comparable to the Boeing 737-528 presidential aircraft, with a flight hour cost of PEN 19,263.08.
The Spartan has a capacity for 50 passengers or seven tons of cargo (according to a typical flight profile) or 32 stretchers. However, it is essential to note that within these costs, the item ‘major maintenance’ is worth PEN 12,283.05, as indicated in the agreement.
Years ago, the alternative of implementing a maintenance center in Peru for the Spartan was considered, given that the acquisition of 12 aircraft of this type for the FAP was being sought and that local maintenance could reduce costs in this area.
In 2016, the Peruvian Air Force and the Italian conglomerate Leonardo Company implemented the first stage of a comprehensive support program for the Spartan aircraft at approximately US$26 million.
The particularity of this agreement is the zero stock strategy, which tends to reduce time and costs in optimal scenarios.
The FAP is implementing a similar approach with Viking Air for its DHC-6-400 Twin Otter aircraft. Towards the end of 2021, the Armed Forces Procurement Agency (Acffaa) extended the Italian manufacturer’s logistical support through a contract worth more than US$12 million.
The most remarkable result of the logistic support signed with the original manufacturer of the Spartan has resulted in levels of operability rarely seen in the history of military aviation in Peru.
The C-27J Spartan has a maximum take-off weight of 31,800 kilograms, maximum landing weight of 30,500 kilograms, a normal landing weight of 27,500 kilograms, a maximum normal load of 11,600 kilograms, a maximum tactical load of 8,100 kilograms, a capacity for 12,320 liters of fuel, can take-off and land at a maximum of 30,500 kilograms, 320 liters of fuel, can take off at a 580 meters runway at its maximum take-off weight, can land at 340 meters at its normal landing weight, maximum cruise speed of 602 km/h (325 KTAS), a service ceiling of 9,144 meters, cruise altitude of 8,382 meters at 95% of its maximum take-off weight, range with 4,536 kilograms of a payload of 5,112 kilometers and maximum range of 5,852 kilometers.
The Spartan is an upgraded derivative of the Aeritalia G.222 aircraft and can be used for troop transport missions with a capacity of 46 soldiers, 60 soldiers in high-density configuration, 46 paratroopers, mixed cargo transport, in-flight cargo release, aeromedical evacuation, firefighting with a roll-on/roll-off system, VIP transport, integrates modern digital avionics, has a length of 22.7 meters, a height of 9.64 meters, a wingspan of 28.7 meters, wing area of 82 square meters.
FAILURE TO PURCHASE MORE SPARTANS
Between 2011 and 2016, Peru’s Defense sector regained some of the dynamism of other times, and acquisitions were made that overshadowed what was done in the two previous state administrations (2001-2006 and 2006-2011).
Although the government of those five years (2011-2016) was not characterized by its efficiency, its macro numbers are not as mediocre as those recorded by the Peruvian economy in subsequent years, particularly since 2018.
Acquisitions for Defense also paled as of 2018, and Peru is currently administered by a government that is not characterized by having the Armed Forces among its priorities, to the point that by 2022 for the Army of Peru, in the aircraft item, only the purchase of a training helicopter has been programmed, even cataloging such purchase as strategic.
The purchases of Spartan aircraft, along with several other Defense programs, were suspended.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit Peru particularly hard due to an Executive Power that implemented disastrous administrative and health management, placing Peru in such a position that it registered the highest number of deaths compared to the number of inhabitants.
The paralysis of the national economy during the pandemic also affected the Defense sector, bringing the economic indicators to the basement, and the levels of formal employment have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with inflation tending to grow in a context of orphaned investment promotion and abandonment to its fate of formal mining, one of the main engines of the Peruvian economy.
The government headed by Pedro Castillo does not consider the Defense sector as a priority, and the current Minister of Defense, José Luis Gavidia, is only accentuating this position by trying to assign part of the flight hours of the Armed Forces’ well-trodden helicopters and airplanes to the regional governments.
Above we have already seen how an agreement with the Health sector takes advantage of flight hours of the military aeronautical fleet. The regional governments are joining it, but no major purchases have been announced to preserve the operability, relevance for national development, and the current state of the fleet of military air transports.
In such a complicated context, the possibility of purchasing more C-27J Spartan aircraft is reduced even more if the feasibility of transferring technologies to bring the maintenance processes to a local level is not evaluated.
With information from InfoDefensa