The 
C-27J Spartan fleet is still grounded almost a month after the Air Force pulled the aircraft from flight status to investigate a flight-control issue encountered by one of the mini airlifters on a July 10 training sortie. “The C-27J crisis management team is methodically and carefully investigating the incident,” Air Force officials told the Daily Report on Aug. 6 in a written response to a query. As part of the investigation, Air Force Research Lab technicians at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, are conducting a “root cause analysis” of the reported control problem in tandem with the base’s 88th Air Base Wing safety office, which is probing the incident, said the officials. “We must establish a root cause before the C-27J CMT can make a return-to-flight recommendation to the commander of Air Mobility Command,” they explained. Congress has thus far blocked the Air Force’s proposal to divest the Air National Guard-operated C-27 fleet in Fiscal 2013. (See also Spartanless.)
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
