Pentagon says does not need more Boeing C-17s

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military does not need additional C-17 transport planes built by Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) beyond the 189 it has already has on order, despite an Air Force "dream list" asking Congress to fund 15 more, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer John Young said on Tuesday.

"We have no requirements base for more aircraft," Young told reporters, noting that for the past two years the Pentagon's budget request had not included funding for additional C-17 airplanes.

He said the decisions underlying those budget requests were "well-founded" and no conflicting information surfaced during a recent review of a separate Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) program to put new engines on even larger C-5 cargo planes.

In a letter explaining his decision to continue putting new engines on some of the C-5s that went to Congress in February, Young said he had rejected several options for buying C-17s to replace C-5s as too expensive.

He also cited a U.S. Transportation Command requirement of 205 C-17s, which raised some eyebrows on Capitol Hill since that appeared to go beyond the fiscal 2009 budget request.

On Tuesday, Young said he had tried to "acknowledge" the requirement of U.S. Transportation Command Commander Gen. Norton Schwartz in his letter to Congress, but that was not a "codified" or documented Pentagon requirement.

"If I don't get 205, Gen. Schwartz might not have the tails (planes) he needs, but we can meet the only stated requirement that's out there," Young said.

He said the military could meet a documented Pentagon requirement of cargo capacity with the planes it had, plus its fleet of giant Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) C-5 transport planes, some of which are being upgraded to get new engines.