By Emelie Rutherford
The Air Force confirmed last week it plans to order 15 C-17 Globemasters early next year, and will use money in its coffers to make up for a last-minute cut to the airlifter’s funding in the most-recent war-supplemental spending act.
Contractor Boeing [BA] is waiting anxiously for the orders to be placed for those C-17s for fiscal year 2008, which ended Sept. 30. The 15 aircraft will bring the program’s U.S. tally up to 205 C-17, which the company said will keep the production line running until August 2010.
Though lawmakers initially included $3.6 billion in FY ’08 funding for 15 C-17s in the massive FY ’08-FY ’09 war-funding supplemental passed last June, they made a $3.6 billion, across-the-board cut to FY ’08 war funding before passing the legislation.
For months, congressional appropriators were not able to provide an updated, post-cut rundown of the FY ’08 weapon systems purchases, including whether the C-17 total would dip below 15.
Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ann Stefanek confirmed last week that the number will stay at 15.
“The Air Force plans to augment funds from the Supplemental Appropriations Act for 2008 with available FY 2007 C-17 funds to satisfy the intent of Congress to procure 15 additional C-17 aircraft and associated support requirements,” she said in a statement.
Stefanek said an undefinitized contracting action with Boeing for the 15 C-17s is “expected 2nd quarter FY09,” which runs from January through March of next year.
“This is terrific news, because what it does is this helps sustain the line,” Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling said about the forthcoming order he estimates will be placed in January or early February.
The next big event for the program will be the debate over the next war-supplemental bill, which is expected to cover funding for the end of FY ’09, because funding may be included for additional C-17s. The legislation will be proposed by the Pentagon and considered by Congress after President-elect Barack Obama assumes office Jan. 20.
Whether to continue the C-17 line is often mentioned as one of the Obama Pentagon’s major short-term decisions on defense-acquisition programs.
Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden gave Boeing hope shortly before the Nov. 4 election, when an updated defense fact sheet specifically citing the C-17 was posted on the Democrats’ campaign Web site.
Under the subheading “preserve global reach in the air,” the document states: “We need greater investment in advanced technology ranging from the revolutionary, like unmanned aerial vehicles and electronic warfare capabilities, to systems like the C-17 cargo and KC-X air refueling aircraft–which may not be glamorous to politicians, but are the backbone of our future ability to extend global power.”
“That was very encouraging for us, and we’re certainly looking forward to working with the administration on that,” Drelling said about the C-17 mention in the Obama-Biden defense plan. “So hopefully the wind is shifting for C-17s.”
The Bush administration requested no FY ’09 funding for C-17s for the past three years, and the program has relied on funding in supplemental war-funding bills.
C-17 supporters expect to see at least a half dozen of the cargo haulers funded in the next FY ’09 supplemental bill, because the FY ’09 defense authorization act that Bush signed into law in October authorizes six not-yet-appropriated aircraft for FY ’09.
“We’re hoping there will be more than six put into the [FY ’09 war-supplemental] budget, so that’s what we’re working on right now, working with Congress on,” Drelling said.
Each aircraft extends the production line by three week. Thus, if 15 more C-17s are appropriated with FY ’09 funds, the line would be extended to August 2011, he said.
While Boeing has been receiving international orders for the cargo haulers–including a recent contract with Qatar for two C-17s and a deal under negotiation with NATO for two airlifters–those sales don’t have a huge impact on the line completion date.
“These tend to be smaller orders,” Drelling said. “So they’re nice, but they’re really, long term, not enough to extend the line,” considering each aircraft adds three weeks of production.
Boeing plans to deliver this week the 180th C-17 to the Air Force, out of the 190 currently on contract. Fourteen additional C-17s have been delivered to the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, the spokesman said.
Additional foreign orders could be coming in the months ahead, sources said.
The C-17’s future is expected to be impacted by two yet-to-be-completed airlift studies. The Institute for Defense Analyses is conducting a congressionally mandated study on future strategic and theater airlift, which could be completed by February. The Office of the Secretary of Defense and U.S. Transportation Command are conducting another study– for strategic and theater-lift requirements in 2016–that is expected to be completed by next fall.