News Review: Five up, one to go? | ADM November 2011

No sooner had Minister for Defence Stephen Smith taken delivery of the RAAF’s fifth C-17A Globemaster III airlifter, whose purchase was announced at this year’s Avalon air show, than he announced the likely purchase of a sixth C-17A.

The aircraft handed over to the RAAF at Amberley in September was ordered under a US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement in April. The US Air Force allocated an aircraft already on the production line to the RAAF to ensure speedy delivery. Minister Smith announced at Amberley that Australia has sent a Letter of Request to the US formally seeking cost and availability information for an additional C-17A through the FMS program.

“A sixth C-17A would give the Government increased options to support a wider range of contingencies that might require heavy-lift aircraft,” Smith said in a statement. “Advice from Defence is that a sixth aircraft would double the number of C-17A aircraft available for operations at any one time compared to four aircraft.

“Following receipt of cost and availability information from the United States, the Government will make a decision about the purchase based on capability, cost and schedule assessments of the sixth C?17A.”

Australia mirrors the UK in that an initial lease of four C-17As by the Royal Air Force became an outright purchase of seven aircraft. The RAAF’s aircraft have likewise been heavily utilised since delivery. The C-17 provides the RAAF with a flexible, intercontinental heavy lift capability that doesn’t depend on extremely long runways. With a maximum payload of 164,900 pounds (74,797 kg), the C-17A can take off and land on a 3,000ft (915m) runway.

Subject: Air