Australian Department of Defense, Air Force will receive a boost to airlift capability in early 2008 with the delivery of Australia’s third and fourth Boeing C-17A Globemaster III aircraft.
Commander Air Lift Group, Air Commodore Jack Plenty, formally accepted the third Globemaster for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during a ceremony at Boeing’s C-17 plant in Long Beach, California on Tuesday, 18 December 2007.
This aircraft will spend the New Year period being fitted with defensive countermeasure equipment before delivery to Australia in early February.
Air Force will accept its fourth Globemaster in mid-January. It is due for delivery to Australia in early March.
AIRCDRE Jack Plenty said the Globemaster is a quantum leap in airlift capability for the RAAF.
“The Globemaster has undergone a rapid acceptance into RAAF service, but already the first two aircraft are more than pulling their weight in support of ADF tasks at home and abroad,” AIRCDRE Plenty said.
“Disaster relief was one of the reasons we purchased this aircraft, and last month a C-17 supplied 14 pallets of aid relief at short notice into Port Moresby as part of Operation PNG Assist, following Cyclone Guba.
“Our Globemaster capability will keep growing in 2008, not just in the number of aircraft and crews we have at 36 Squadron, but also in the roles we deliver.”
This will include the airborne delivery of cargo, as well as aero-medical evacuation, where the Globemaster can be configured to carry 36 stretcher patients.
The Globemaster is operated by No. 36 Squadron at RAAF Base Amberley at Ipswich.
It is capable of carrying more than 70 tonnes of cargo, or up to three Black Hawk helicopters, a single Chinook helicopter, or five Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs).
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