Slovenia receives first Leonardo C-27J transport aircraft

Slovenia has received its first Leonardo C-27J Spartan Next Generation (NG), the first of two ordered. The aircraft will fill military roles such as tactical transport and has been fitted with ballistic protection, but will also conduct firefighting using a MAFFS II Modular Airborne Fire-Fighting System palletised system.

Leonardo and Slovenia's Air Armaments and Airworthiness Directorate of the Secretariat General of Defence/National Armaments Directorate have signed two contracts over the last two years, each of the contracts includes one aircraft plus logistics and training services.

The first contract was signed in March 2022 and the deal for the second aircraft was signed in November. Shephard Defence Insight noted that the deal for two aircraft amounted to €129 million (US$136 million).

The aircraft has been in service with 17 countries within mostly low-single digit fleets, but Australia (10), Italy (12) and USA (21) have been the exception.

The C-27J is a twin-turboprop tactical transport with new-generation technology in avionics, propulsion and systems and it incorporates the Rolls-Royce AE2100 engines, six-blade propellers and glass cockpit of Lockheed Martin’s C-130J.

The C-27J NG featured new avionics to comply with the new Performance Based Navigation international standard to operate in civil air space without limitations and to enhance interoperability in tactical scenarios. It also has new winglets to improve climb performance and increase the MTOW by up to 1,000kg.