US Army C-27J Upgrade Programme

In February 2023, it was announced that Leonardo SpA was awarded a contract for the C-27J 1.2+ avionics update kit. This upgrade will replace the current aging avionics package on the seven United States Army C-27J Spartan aircraft, which is 15 years old.

The potential value of this contract is USD 92 million and is due to be completed by 30 January 2030. As part of this overall contract, a USD 64 million fixed price delivery order was placed with Leonardo SpA for a first article aircraft cockpit and testing. The majority of the work will be performed at Napoli (Italy).

C-27J 10-27026 was selected as the plane to undergo these modifications first. On 19 February 2024, it departed Pope Field AAF, Fort Liberty (NC). During its transit, stops were made at Keflavik (Iceland) and Stuttgart (Germany) before arriving at Torino-Caselle (Italy) on 24 February 2024. The US Army Spartans are operated by the US Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOAC) Flight Company (UFC) and are based at Yuma Proving Ground/Laguna AAF (AZ) and Pope AAF (NC).

Since the contract stated that the majority of the work was to be conducted at Napoli, it is unclear at this point in time if the aircraft will move there or if the parts for this upgrade were constructed there and will be installed in this C-27J at Torino-Caselle.

Credit photo: Daniel Fuchs via airfighters.com