By Jen DiMascio

Buying more than 205 C-17 Globemaster aircraft to boost airlift capacity is too expensive, according to a memo by the Pentagon’s acquisition chief.

During the process of certifying a program to replace engines on C-5 Galaxy aircraft, John Young also reviewed options for buying additional C-17 aircraft.

“The higher costs of options procuring additional C-17’s are unaffordable in the Future Years Defense Program,” Young wrote in a Feb. 14 memo circulated last week by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

The Air Force, in its unfunded requirements list, is asking for 15 C-17s, most of which would exceed 205.

POGO investigator Nick Schwellenbach called the Pentagon document a repudiation of the service’s wish list.

“This is all evidence that the Air Force lacks an affordable, consistent and coherent airlift procurement strategy and will once again raise the issue of Air Force favoritism towards Boeing,” Schwellenbach said in a statement.

The debate on the need for strategic airlift has been raging for the past several years. A 2005 Mobility Capabilities Study and the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review placed the number of needed C-17s at 180.

But the Pentagon’s projected needs haven’t stopped Congress from stepping in.

Concerns about maintaining the industrial base and the ability of the Air Force to sustain aging C-5 aircraft prompted lawmakers to add large chunks of supplemental funding to the C-17 program. In fiscal year 2007, Congress provided funding for 10 Globemasters.

Lawmakers are poised to approve another 14 aircraft in the pending FY ’08 supplemental bill.

Last year, Transportation Command Commander Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz said he recommended to congressional leaders that the strategic airlift fleet requires 205 C-17s made by Boeing [BA] and 111 C-5 aircraft made by Lockheed Martin [LMT].

Young’s memo does not object to 205 C-17s, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin.

The figure reflects what is already likely to come to the Air Force. The C-5 certification analysis assumed that 189 C-17s were programmed by the Air Force and that 14 would be included in the fiscal year 2008 war supplemental that Congress has yet to approve, Irwin wrote in a statement.

The statement by POGO notes that an investigation is ongoing about whether the Air Force improperly allowed industry shape the service’s budget plans with respect to the C- 17.