U.S. general urges Boeing to pitch C-17 overseas

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Air Force general on Tuesday urged Boeing Co to aggressively market its C-17 cargo plane to foreign countries as one strategy for keeping the production line running.

Gen. Norton Schwartz, who heads the U.S. Transportation Command, said the Department of Defense (DOD) needed 205 C-17s -- 15 more than are currently planned -- to meet its own military requirements. Boeing has delivered 171 planes to the U.S. military, out of a total of 190 on order, he said.

But foreign sales could keep the Boeing production line in Long Beach, California running even longer, he told a House Armed Services subcommittee, noting that Canada, Australia and Britain had already ordered the popular transport plane.

In addition, some Gulf countries had expressed interest in more than four additional planes and a NATO consortium was looking at buying three more, he said.

"It is absolutely clear to me that there is an appetite for these machines outside the DOD procurement profile and it requires aggressive marketing on behalf of the manufacturer to see that those opportunities are realized," he said.

"It's a strategy for extending the production line and it's something that should be aggressively pursued," he added.

Pentagon acquisition chief John Young last month said the U.S. military did not need additional C-17 transport planes beyond those it has already ordered, despite an Air Force "dream list" asking Congress to fund 15 more.

He acknowledged Schwartz's requirement of 205, but said that was not a "codified" or documented Pentagon requirement.