By Emelie Rutherford
A long-awaited mobility-capabilities study that could indicate if the Pentagon wants to order more C-17 airlifters, among other matters, will reach the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) in May, a senior Pentagon official said.
Gen. Duncan McNabb, head of United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), told lawmakers yesterday that the Mobility Capabilities and Requirements Study 2016 (MCRS-16), which his command and OSD are expected to complete this year, “is in the works right now, about to be taken to OSD in May.”
The strategic and theater lift requirements study has looked at factors that have emerged since the Mobility Capability Study of 2005 and impact on the Pentagon’s cargo ship and aircraft plans.
McNabb told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) those influencing factors include: “The increase in the ground forces, the change in the way we use the airplanes…(such as the) C-17, the higher usage, how do we do the intra-theater. It’s also looking at the tanker capability and sealift as well.”
The four-star general cited the study when asked by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) about plans for Boeing‘s [BA] C-17 Globemaster and Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft.
“With respect to the C-5, all those airframes are old,” Chambliss said. “We keep a modernization program constantly on the books. The C- 17 we’re flying at 150 percent of the anticipated rate that we thought we’d be flying it in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now we’re looking at whether or not we’re going to continue that line of C-17s.”
Fellow SASC member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said lawmakers are “anxious to get the information (on C-17s and C-5s) from that (study) as soon as it’s available.”
Boeing also has been waiting to hear the results of the study, because all of the planned 205 C-17s have been ordered, thus it does not know if the production line will run after all those aircraft are delivered in mid-2010. The Bush Pentagon requested no funding for C-17s in recent years, and the program has relied on funding lawmakers added to supplemental war-funding bills.
McNabb noted yesterday the current C-17 program of record calls for 205 aircraft, and said work is proceeding to re-engine a limited number of the C-5s. C-5As also will be put in an avionics modernization program.
“I think the overall mix we have about right, unless something changes,” he said.
The general told two House Armed Services subcommittees on Feb. 25 he would be open to increasing the number of C-5s that are re-engined if costs decrease and the mobility-capabilities study supports such a change.
McNabb said yesterday the “good news” on the C-5 re-engining effort–which previously suffered a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach–is the first three aircraft have been delivered to Dover AFB, Del.
“They’re going to go out there in the system, and we’ll test it out,” he said.