SAC is a multinational strategic airlift effort involving 10 NATO countries and two countries from the alliance’s Partnership for Peace program. The C-17s are operated by the Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) at Pápa Air Base in Hungary. Boeing has more than 60 people supporting the effort, and Pápa Air Base was the first location where Boeing provided all C-17 operational maintenance.
“The Boeing team has been an important member of the SAC family from the start and contributes invaluably to the HAW flying safe missions for the nations,” said Royal Netherlands Air Force Colonel Frank Rombouts, Commander of the airlift wing.
Boeing has a large customer base in Central and Eastern Europe and supports more than 6,500 jobs in the region. The company spent nearly $6 million with Tier 1 suppliers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania in 2012, according to Henryka Bochniarz, President of Boeing Central & Eastern Europe.
The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is designed to fulfill military and humanitarian airlift needs well into the 21st century. A high-wing, four-engine, T-tailed aircraft with a rear-loading ramp, the C-17 can carry large combat equipment and troops or humanitarian aid across international distances directly to small austere airfields anywhere in the world.
With a payload of 164,900 pounds, the C-17 can take off from a 7,000-foot airfield, fly 2,400 nautical miles, and land on a small, austere airfield of 3,000 feet or less. The C-17 is equipped with an externally blown flap system that allows a steep, low-speed final approach and low-landing speeds for routine short-field landings.
On September 12, 2013, Boeing delivered the U.S. Air Force’s 223rd C-17 fulfilling the U.S. Air Force contract. Worldwide, Boeing has delivered 260 C-17s including 37 to eight customers outside the United States.
Boeing delivered the first C-17 Globemaster III to the Kuwait Air Force on Feb. 13, 2014. Kuwait is the newest customer in the worldwide C-17 fleet. The program delivered five of 10 C-17s to the Indian Air Force in 2013, and is on schedule to deliver five more in 2014. Qatar, the first Middle East customer to order C-17s, received two C-17s in 2009 and exercised options to receive two C-17s in 2012. In November 2012, the Royal Australian Air Force received its sixth C-17. The United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defence received its sixth C-17 in June 2012. In May 2012, the United Kingdom Royal Air Force received an additional C-17, bringing the Royal Air Force fleet to eight. The Royal Canadian Air Force has four C-17s. The 12-nation Strategic Airlift Capability consortium of NATO and Partnership for Peace nations received three C-17s in 2009.
