NATO agrees to buy three Boeing C-17 planes
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Ten NATO nations, joined by Sweden and Finland, have signed an agreement to buy three Boeing Co (BA.N) C-17 long-range cargo planes, the company said on Wednesday.
Boeing said a memorandum of understanding signed by the Pentagon and the NATO Airlift Management Agency on Sept. 24 called for two of the planes to be purchased from Boeing, while a third would be provided by the U.S. Air Force.
Delivery of the first aircraft could take place as early as spring 2009, Boeing said in a statement announcing the deal, which has been years in the making.
Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling said details still needed to be worked out between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Boeing once the agreement was finalized. Defense analysts say the airplane usually sells for upward of $200 million each.
NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Peter Flory said the planes would be used to support NATO operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, as well as for national, European Union and United Nations missions.
Under the terms of the agreement, each participating nation will pay for a portion of a C-17 rather than an entire aircraft, allowing them to share a pooled fleet.
The 12 countries participating in NATO's Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) program are Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States.
NATO does not currently own a heavy airlift capability and frequently contracts with nations such as the United States and Russia for assistance with its heavy airlift needs.
Jean Chamberlin, Boeing's C-17 program manager, welcomed the agreement, which comes as Boeing continues to lobby Congress to approve additional U.S. purchases of the airplane.
The C-17 is a four-engined aircraft with a rear-loading ramp, and can carry up to 170,000 pounds of large combat equipment and troops or humanitarian aid across long distances to small airfields.
Boeing said there were 191 C-17s operating worldwide, including 177 owned by the U.S. Air Force, six by Britain's Royal Air Force, four by Australia and four by Canada.
Boeing is due to deliver an additional C-17 to the U.S. Air Force next week, Drelling said.
In July Boeing won a contract to provide the airplane to Qatar as well, beginning in late summer 2009.
Boeing last month said it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to keep its C-17 production line running, in the hope that Congress will fund 15 more C-17 transport planes in a war spending bill for fiscal 2009, which began Wednesday.
Chamberlin told reporters that Boeing would have to shut down its Long Beach, California production line if it did not get additional funding for more C-17 transport planes. Continued...
