UKMOD to buy extra C‑17 aircraft

Prime Min­is­ter David Cameron has today announced that the MOD is to order an addi­tion­al C‑17 Globe­mas­ter, tak­ing the num­ber of air­craft in the RAF’s fleet to eight.

 -
A Roy­al Air Force C‑17 trans­port air­craft at an air base in the Mid­dle East (stock image) [Pic­ture: Sergeant Ross Tilly RAF, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]
Source: Min­istry of Defence, UK
Click to enlarge

Speak­ing in the House of Com­mons, Mr Cameron said: 

“Because the Min­istry of Defence’s finances are bet­ter run and bet­ter man­aged, and because we have found sav­ings, we will be able to pur­chase an addi­tion­al C‑17 for the RAF

“This air­craft is becom­ing an absolute­ly bril­liant work­horse for the RAF in terms of bring­ing men and mate­r­i­al into a war zone like Afghanistan, but also evac­u­at­ing civil­ians in times of need. 

“It’s an impor­tant invest­ment for the coun­try and I’m glad to announce we can make it today.” 

The pur­chase of an extra C‑17 will help to sup­port the air­bridge which trans­ports Armed Forces per­son­nel and equip­ment between the UK and Afghanistan. 

The newest C‑17 is cur­rent­ly being built by Boe­ing in the USA and is due to come off the pro­duc­tion line next month. It is then expect­ed to enter ser­vice with the RAF in July 2012. 

The air­craft, which will cost in the region of £200m, will be based at RAF Brize Nor­ton in Oxford­shire along with the oth­er air­craft in the fleet which are oper­at­ed by 99 Squadron. The C‑17 air­craft can fly over 4,500 nau­ti­cal miles (8,300km), mean­ing it can cov­er the dis­tance beween the UK and Hel­mand province in the one flight. 

Defence Sec­re­tary Philip Ham­mond said: 

“The C‑17 has shown its worth in Afghanistan ensur­ing that our troops are giv­en the fastest, most effi­cient pas­sage home. 

“It is a vast­ly impres­sive air­craft that can car­ry three Apache heli­copters, or take a whole Chi­nook helicopter. 

“This lat­est addi­tion to the RAF fleet will fur­ther strength­en the vital air­bridge between Britain and Afghanistan, ensur­ing crit­i­cal deliv­er­ies are made to the front line. 

“Buy­ing equip­ment off-the-shelf allows us to quick­ly deliv­er equip­ment that our troops need on oper­a­tions at best val­ue prices for the tax­pay­er and is a great exam­ple of the White Paper, announced last week, in action.” 

As well as trans­port­ing troops and equip­ment, C‑17s can also be con­vert­ed rapid­ly to offer inten­sive care pro­vi­sion in sup­port of the aeromed­ical airbridge. 

One air­craft is on stand­by 24-hours-a-day to fly seri­ous­ly injured per­son­nel back to the UK at short notice. The air­craft can also be deployed to help with human­i­tar­i­an and dis­as­ter relief efforts around the world. 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →