A tough, unloved little military airlifter is flying some of the most important relief missions as the world mobilizes to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The twin-engine Alenia C-27J Spartan is an updated version of the same company’s classic G.222. The 74-feet-long C-27 can haul seven tons of cargo or dozens of passengers as far as 2,000 miles without aerial refueling.

Around 100 C-27Js are in service with 13 countries. At least three countries have deployed their Spartans for pandemic-response. Smaller than a C-130 but bigger than a King Air, the C-27 is just the right size for an urgent regional mission to transport bulky but lightweight medical supplies.

The Peruvian air force on March 18, 2020 flew one of four C-27s with a load of medicine deep into the Amazon rainforest to the town of Iquitos, which has suffered an outbreak of the virus.

On March 22, 2020, one of the Lithuanian air force’s three C-27Js traveled to Belgium to pick up 5,000 virus test kits. Lithuania had ordered around 200,000 test kits, but there were delays in production. Belgium had kits to spare, so the government in Vilnius sortied the C-27 on its emergency trip.

Meanwhile, on March 23, 2020, the Romanian air force sent one of its seven C-27Js to Turkey to pick up medical supplies that Bucharest had ordered to bolster its coronavirus relief efforts.

It's worth noting that the C-27J is compatible with mobile isolation kits that some air forces use to transport highly-contagious patients to hospitals. The Italian air force and the Royal Air Force so far have flown missions with these isolation kits, using a KC-767 tanker-transport and an A400M airlifter, respectively.

With these lifesaving missions, the C-27J may finally have found its niche. The plane was the object of an embarrassing bureaucratic foul-up beginning in the early 2000s, when the U.S. Army announced it wanted a fixed-wing transport plane to take some of the pressure off its fleet of CH-47 helicopters.

The CH-47 fleet at the time was overtaxed flying supplies to remote Army outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The helicopter was too small for some tasks. But the C-130 was too big.

The need was obvious, but the U.S. Air Force objected to the Army possessing cargo planes. The flying branch convinced the ground-combat branch to cancel its request for airlifters. The Air Force in exchange vowed to acquire C-27Js and assign them to missions supporting Army outposts.

The first C-27Js entered Air Force service in 2010 and deployed to Afghanistan in 2011. Just a year later, the Air Force canceled the Spartan program, citing budgetary concerns.

By then the Air Force had ordered 21 C-27Js. U.S. Special Operations Command took seven and assigned them to the training role. The U.S. Coast Guard got the remaining 14 and converted them into maritime patrol planes.

U.S. Air Force C-17 and C-130 airlifters have flown coronavirus missions. The C-27J might have been a better fit.

David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels  War Fix, War Is Boring and Machete Squad.