Boeing Steps Up C-17 Leasing

"We need to deliver the best four-aircraft lease program the world has ever seen" if other nations are to follow the lead of the Royal Air Force and sign up for Boeing's C-17 military transport, says Stuart Thomson, of business development VP at Boeing's airlift and tanker group.

The RAF accepted the first of four C-17s on long-term lease last month. "We consider it to be a huge victory," Thomson told Show News. "It has been a long time coming-we started working this deal in 1992."

The importance of signing up the UK as the first foreign customer is not lost on Boeing. To have a Union Jack and RAF roundels on the C-17 makes it a giant billboard-"they are like a stamp of quality" Thomson says, sending a signal that won't be lost to such other prospective nations as Canada and Australia as the British C-17s deploy around the world.

"We are going to be increasingly responsive now to other nations," Thomson says. Leasing affords customer countries the benefits of an $8.5 billion, 12-year development program for very little upfront investment.

Like everything else with the C-17 Globemaster III program, the RAF victory was hard won. Boeing continues to wage major battles for a continuing share of the Pentagon's budget, which has so far funded just 120 of the $175 million (in 1996 dollars) aircraft. Some 72 are now in service with the USAF, with final deliveries slated for November 2004. A further 14 are required for special forces, but are not yet contracted. The four for the RAF will bring total projected production as of today to 138.

"We believe our future beyond that looks reasonably positive as defense mobility will continue to be important," said Thomson. "It looks as though production will be continuing."

The bright star in the program is the C-17 itself, which is routinely the most heavily tasked aircraft in USAF inventory. It is scoring a mission-capable readiness rate of 80-85% while some aircraft undergo retrofit of new equipment requested by the USAF, but has other wise consistently shown 95% reliability once on a mission, and a 97% mission-ready rate during the first 30 days of Kosovo.