The Australian Air Force this week took delivery Friday of its fourth and final Boeing C-17 Globemaster (left), the very same plane that the Canadian Air Force is buying:
Just two years after Australia decided to purchase four Globemasters for the heavy air lift role, the accelerated acquisition program has delivered the giant aircraft on time and on budget . . .
. . . The C-17 project’s (AUS)$2.2 billion budget includes the construction of permanent facilities for Number 36 Squadron and its support agencies at RAAF Base Amberley. The project also includes significant improvements to Air Movements facilities at RAAF Bases Darwin, Townsville, Edinburgh and Pearce.
Canada has already taken delivery of 2 of its 4 C-17s. They will be based at CFB Trenton, Ont., where, according to a senior DND official I had a briefing with this week, there are a forest of cranes busily constructing new facilities for the C-17 and the 17 new C-130Js that will be arriving over the next few years.
DND sources, incidentally, indicate that the planes Canada received were in close to perfect shape. Upon delivery, each of the planes we’ve received were given a Category 2 rating which, per the terms of the contract, means “The airplane exhibits one or more deficiencies”.” DND officials are foribidden to tell me what those deficiences are — trade secrets and/or national security and alll — but they say they are very minor in nature. The government held back less than one-quarter of one per cent of the value of the contract or about $1.25–million per plane.
In its release highlighting the delivery, Boeing takes stock of the worldwide fleet of C-17s and gets in a not-so-subtle jab at U.S. lawmakers to keep the orders coming for more C-17s:
…. the worldwide C-17 fleet now includes 171 U.S. Air Force C-17s as well as four in the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) and two in the Canadian Forces. The RAF and the Canadian Forces each will receive two additional C-17s this year. The U.S. Air Force is on contract to receive 19 additional C-17s by mid-2009.
…Today's delivery leaves just 23 C-17s remaining on the production schedule. Without additional orders, the C-17 line will close in late 2009. Despite significant evidence of increasing airlift needs, the U.S. Air Force has not budgeted for additional C-17s the last two years, forcing congressional plus-ups to meet the needed requirement.