The Foreign Military Sale agreement will provide
support for the RAF’s fleet of eight C-17A Globemaster
III aircraft, which provided lifesaving humanitarian
relief following Hurricane Irma last summer.
Defence Minister said:
Our C-17 giants take everything from heavy equipment
to vital troops to where they’re needed right across
the globe. This deal keeps them in the air into the
next decade and affirms our leadership, alongside our
American allies, in providing global security and
humanitarian aid as we stand together in defence of
our shared values.
This bilateral deal will deliver spares, design
services, reliability and maintenance improvements,
access to technical resources, and RAF aircrew and
maintenance crew training programmes.
It will sustain more than 50 jobs in the UK through the
support of a Boeing team at RAF Brize Norton, the home
of the UK’s C-17 operators, 99 Squadron RAF. Further
work will be carried out in the US at Boeing facilities
in San Antonio, Texas.
The new agreement, which extends and builds upon
support arrangements that have existed since the C-17
came into UK service in 2001, will run until 2022.
As part of the UK’s Joint Rapid Reaction Force, the
C-17 provides the RAF with long-range strategic
heavy-lift ability, meaning it can deliver equipment
and supplies close to where UK troops are on
operations. Support for the RAF’s C-17 fleet is
delivering an important need laid out in the Strategic
Defence and Security Review 2015.
Defence Equipment & Support Chief of Materiel
(Air), Air Marshal Young, said:
The signature of this deal has come about through the
close relationship the Ministry of Defence has with
our counterparts in the US, and will deliver
world-leading support for the front line.
It means the UK will be able to continue to depend on
the C-17’s remarkable capabilities in support of
operations all over the world.
With a maximum airspeed of around 510 miles per hour,
the jet can transport 77 tonnes of cargo, equivalent to
three Apache attack helicopters or a Challenger 2 tank,
and has a wingspan equivalent to the length of five
double-decker buses.
