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GREAT FALLS - Another flying mission could be landing in Great Falls, as Great Falls International Airport has been selected as an operations base candidate for the C-27J Spartan aircraft.

On Thursday, the United States Air Force released its candidate choices for operations and training locations; the other candidate is Boise, Idaho.

The Air Force will conduct surveys at each site and begin the environmental impact analysis process, and then make the final selection.

The C-27J is a twin turboprop engine aircraft that gives military troops a unique short take-off and landing capability.

Additional information about the aircraft is available at the C27J website, including this overview:

The C-27J features the unique capability to vary cargo floor height and continuously adjust attitude, ensuring easy loading and unloading of large volume, high density payloads without ground support equipment and also facilitating drive-in/out of vehicles so that they can be in use immediately.

The C-27J has outstanding threat-avoidance capabilities, including a take-off ground run of about 1,900 feet at maximum take-off weight on an unpaved surface. In a tactical environment, the aircraft is capable of climbing to 10,000 ft in 3 minutes, descending from 10,000 ft in under 2.5 minutes, and can handle up to 3.0g forces. At its maximum landing weight, the C-27J has a ground roll of less than 1,115 ft.

The C-27J is in service with the Air Forces of Greece, Italy, Lithuania and Bulgaria. The aircraft is also under production for the U.S. Army and Air Force's Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program. The C-27J is the best selling twin-turboprop military tactical airlifter in the world, ordered by six air forces: Italian (12 aircraft), Greek (12, plus 3 options), Lithuanian (3), Bulgarian (5) and by the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force (78), for a total of 110 aircraft.