Raf C-17
 

Can anybody confirm when the fifth RAF C-17 is due into service or is it already in service?.

From Hansard Mon 3 Dec 2007

The Secretary of State for Defence (Des Browne): The Ministry of Defence recognises the importance of a robust strategic airlift capability to operational deployments. On 26 July 2007 I announced our intention to procure a sixth C-17 Globemaster aircraft. I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Defence has now signed a contract with Boeing, totalling some £130 million, for the purchase of the sixth C-17 aircraft to be delivered in 2008. This procurement will deliver a significant increase in our capability. The four existing C-17 aircraft already make a critical contribution to sustaining current UK world wide operations, both in providing a general airlift capability and in lifting oversize items. The additional C-17 will join the existing fleet of four aircraft and a fifth aircraft which will be delivered in May 2008.

A collector's item I know, but I think Swiss Des is wrong on the delivery date for UK-5 - Boeing will actually hand it over next February.

You can see a couple of piccies of the aircraft in completion here:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...ompletion.html

Moose :cool:

If the number of aircraft delivered equalled the number of times they'd announced it, we'd have two squadrons of them by now.:rolleyes:

So what are they going to call the fifth and 6th aircraft. ZZ175 was already allocated to the golf buggy Boeing 'donated' on delivery of the first ac....

..How about: 'C-17' or even 'Globemaster III?':E

Gainesy,

To be fair to the MoD, they announced in July that they would be buying a sixth aircraft, and this week they merely confirmed that they have actually signed the contract for it.

Is it just me, or does £130 million seem a bit steep for a C-17? I thought they went for about $180 million!

Let's hope there will be a few more to follow UK-6!

Nah, **** 'em.:)

Southbound, it would not be (or should not be) ZZ.

The letters increment every year. Now of course there is a problem as we only have 24 letters in our alphabet.:}

Not sure why it was ZZ when the current top appears to be ZK.

Or Globemaster C1?

''Let's hope there will be a few more to follow UK-6!''

As I understood it, all aircraft to be produced are pretty much spoken for, then it's going out of production

Found this via google on some geeky site. It was also on a previous post about A400 or A330 tail allocations.:rolleyes:

http://www.wolverhamptonaviationgrou...f_sequence.htm

It appears we have ZZ's for 10 (yes 10) C-17's. Keep 'em coming.







Yes, I am sad

C-17
 

The word around Long Beach is that another USAF order for 12 is in the offing.

My understanding is that 5 and 6 are owned versus 1 to 4 which are leased.

Is it therefore the intent that the last two airframes will be fully operational, without any of the leasing restrictions.

Must be paying a good profit on the leased ones, as you got a golf buggy, but we did not.

Nice to see more frames arriving, we too had heard the rumour that you may get up to 10.

That would be a smart move, even if brownbottle says he cannot afford it.

Regards

Col

Im sure the Australians and the Canadians have also bought them too.
A mighty fine jet indeed and liney freindly as well.

No, the first 4 have been purchased (actually, will be purchased when their lease runs out next year).

See this thread (especially post #6):
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...chase%2C+lease


And then they ordered #6 in July, and just signed the contract a few days ago... so "no plans" can certainly become "new plans" at any time.

Yes, it certainly shows that Defence Procurement can be really fast and smart when:

• The political will exists
• The Treasury agrees
• The suppliers are capable

Shame about FSTA, MRA4, and several others!

A question about the RAF C17s. When the RAAF recently bought C17s they went for the bog standard USAF version (including paint) straight off the production line so delivery was expedited.

Are the RAF C17s bog standard USAF versions or did we, in true British fashion, have special modifications (BAC111, Trident, Tristar) that added cost? (OK I know those examples were civilian aircraft but I am sure the MOD is equally as guilty-Chinook Mk3)

The lease was a bit like a car lease. 10000 miles per year per airframe and 10p per mile excess payment for any miles over that taken off the exchange value or added to the final lump sum payment.

I guess it became readily apparent that it would cost more than a new aircraft in penalties when we came to do a part-exchange deal with Slippery Sam the Used Car Man.

Seriously, when new and Afg kicked off, there was an honest attempt to restrict usage. Used for loads that would not fit in a Herc etc. That soon fell by the wayside -weeks not months.

Aircraft were standard off the production line, not sure what we have done since. Interesting question about 'ownership' enabling us to use the full capability of the aircraft as on intro to Service the Safety Case (fairly topical at the moment) only covered a fairly basic capability set and was most definitely Strat AT-biased. Again, not sure if this has been expanded during Service to date, but I imagine QQ will be only too happy to get involved expanding the envelope.