NATO forces a step closer to obtaining C-17s

  • Published
  • By Army Sgt. 1st Class Reeba Critser
  • U.S. Mission to NATO
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFPN) --  Three C-17 Globemaster IIIs are only three signatures away from finding a new home at Papa Air Base, Hungary.

After years of planning, NATO members and partners are only a few signatures away from gaining access to the C-17s to share for their national requirements, to include NATO missions in Afghanistan.

"Some countries don't have enough [need for] airlift to purchase their own C-17s," said Peter Flory, the assistant secretary general for NATO's defense investment.

NATO officials said the solution is to share the C-17s. The initiative, called Strategic Air Capability, or SAC, allows 12 NATO members and 2 partners to draw on the aircraft's capabilities at a fixed rate. 

First, all the nations must sign a memorandum of understanding. Then they pay the acquisition cost. After that, they only have to pay the operating cost at the end of each year. The nations then request flight hours with an operations team located at Papa AB.

The team at Papa factors in time between aircraft usage for emergency use. The officials also can trade their flight hours with other nations in the group. If maintenance is required, the consortium will pull the costs from their operating budget to make the repairs.

The decision to use C-17s for the initiative was made with the capabilities available at the time, said a U.S. defense advisor to the European Union. NATO countries were looking for an aircraft that could carry large cargo, land while under combat, and on short runways. The C-17s fit that description.

According to a Boeing spokesman, the recommended use of the C-17 is 1,000 flight hours a year, which gives the aircraft a life expectancy of 30 years.

"With a full payload, the C-17 can go a distance of 2,400 nautical miles and (fly at an altitude of) up to 28,000 feet," said Col. John Zazworsky, commander of the Heavy Airlift Wing at Pápa AB, and commander of C-17 operations for SAC. 

"The C-17 was designed around the cargo load," he said. "It can convert to airline or cargo seats. It can handle a combination of passengers, vehicles, track vehicles, cargo, medical evacuations, hummers, fire trucks, helicopters, an Abrams tank - up to 75 metric tons -- and can land on short, austere landing zones."

The U.S. Air Force has about 180 C-17s in its own fleet.

U.S. officials will be providing the personnel to operate the C-17s until each nation in the consortium is ready to handle them on their own.

"Initially, there will only be U.S. personnel manning the C-17s," Colonel Zazworsky said. "But with training, the countries will be able to use their own pilots and loadmasters. It will take a year-and-a-half to train the country's crew and for them to be comfortable with the C-17 to fly on their own."

U.S. officials are providing one aircraft as a national contribution and the other partner nations are purchasing the other two aircraft. However, all three aircraft will be owned by the consortium and can be used at the nations' discretion. 

SAC officials say they hope to receive the first aircraft in spring 2009.

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