India and Last C-17 White Tail
 

If they really wanted 3 I am sure the State Department could spring a couple from the DoD. The C-5 upgrade program can more than fill any hole.

Alert 5 » India wants to buy last ?white tail? Boeing C-17 - Military Aviation News

The last C-17 produced by Boeing has yet to find a buyer and India has indicated that it is keen to buy the cargo plane. India had wanted to buy three more aircraft to add to its existing fleet of 10 C-17s but Boeing closed the production line before India could get its act together.

The final white tail (P-272) has been sold to Qatar who will reportedly take delivery some time in 2017. So no, there are no white tails available for India.

Umm, no. The State Department does not make these decisions. And while the C-5 upgrade program does improve the C-5, it does not make a C-5 into anything like a C-17. So no, no number of C-5Ms could fill the holes created by giving USAF C-17s to India.

And the C-5 fleet is going down in number, even with the C-5M upgrade. Only the 50 or so B's are going through the "M" program (plus one test A and the two C's), so dozens of A's have already gone to the boneyard, and several have already been cut up. So yes improved reliability and dispatch with the M, but the Galaxy fleet will be down to around 52 aircraft quite soon from 131 built. Sadly the marvelous "electric" sounding engines are about gone.

KenV,

Mayhap, but if State point out that if they don't, the next Sqn will be either Russian or European A-400Ms, I thing they'll find them. Having lost the Middle East to the Russians I doubt they'll want to risk the increasing military sales and rapprochement with India as well.

ORAC, the line's shut down. Unless someone coughs up the money to rewarm and reopen the line, there isn't a C-17 to sell.

If necessary they could pull 3 off the USAF line and deliver them tomorrow - and throw some money at the maintenance budget to shorten/rejig the maintenance schedule to fill the gap. Might shorten the life a bit - but then you're talking 50+ years downline and multiple life extension programs away. One also has to accept the present force has attrition numbers built in anyway.

Just depends how desperately they want to keep the Indians happy and away from going back to buying Russian...

Your glib attitude towards the USAF's C-17 buy is noted. The USAF likely isn't interested in their acquisition being scrooged, nor in your suggestion.

Hmmmm, USAF parochial versus global political chess....

India?? It''ll take 20 years for them to formalise the requirement and get it through all the hoops

DoD and USAF don't give a wit if India starts buying Russian transports again, or switch to European transports. And USAF not wanting to give up their C-17s has nothing to do with parochialism. C-17s are the most heavily utilized aircraft in the USAF inventory and USAF intends to fly them till 2116 at least. Yes that's right, 100 years! They bought a few attrition spares but cannot afford to just give up three to India or anyone else. Boeing struggled to find buyers for the 10 white tails. India had multiple chances to lock in a buy of any or all of them, but as is their wont, they diddled. And now it's just too late.

Are you hammering the USAF about a notional transfer of assets with cause? Has there been talk of it other than from fantasy land?