There continues to be a very high ratio of talk to action in the military lift market. For years, countries outside the U.S. and Russia invested minimal sums in military transports. The Airbus Military Co. (AMC) A400M was supposed to revolutionize that, providing a European solution to the requirement, and an incentive for European governments to invest in a robust lift capability. Unfortunately, this program has stagnated.

Although the contract to build 196 A400Ms could still materialize, it depends on a German decision to fund the lion's share of the program. Following German announcements in early December that the government is aiming to pare defense expenditures by several billion euros over the next few years, any A400M money would need to come from other existing programs (AW&ST Dec. 9, 2002, p. 38).

Now that the German air force will procure 60, not 73, airplanes, the pricing and terms of the A400M contract will again need to be reconsidered. This means that the program, which began in 1982 as the Future International Military Airlifter (FIMA), will have spent 20 years with almost no progress. Even the selection of the engine has been reversed, meaning the aircraft's technical progress has moved backward since the Rolls/Snecma/MTU TP400 was chosen in late 2000.

Meanwhile, there have quite naturally been defectors from this confusion. In September 2000, the U.K. Royal Air Force agreed to pay $725 million for the lease of four Boeing C-17s. This was the first export order for the C-17 and, more importantly, for any Western strategic transport. The aircraft will satisfy the RAF's Short-Term Strategic Airlift requirement and were all delivered to the RAF in 2001.

The U.K. decision was undoubtedly a breakthrough in the military airlifter market, which has always been undersized and overdiscussed. For once, a country is not just talking, but spending on strategic lift. However, the U.K. has always been unique in this market--after all, the U.K. virtually is the only country outside of the U.S. and Russia to deploy a dedicated military lifter bigger than the C-130 (the RAF bought 12 Shorts Belfasts in the 1950s).