C-5A swap for new C-17s has hitch

[unhappycamper]

A C-17 can carry two of the Army's Stryker combat vehicles at a time.


C-5A swap for new C-17s has hitch
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jan 10, 2010 8:41:31 EST

Ten more C-17 Globemasters are heading to Air Force flight lines, but there are strings attached.

Air Force leaders have said they want to retire one C-5A Galaxy for each of the 10 new C-17s, which were approved by Congress and the president in December as part of the 2010 budget.

Also included in the budget is about $5.8 billion for other new aircraft and upgrades.

The $2.5 billion investment in C-17s was added by lawmakers supportive of the aircraft and the 5,000 workers who build them at Boeing’s plant in Long Beach, Calif.

The Air Force hasn’t budgeted for the aircraft, so the service is scrambling to figure out how to pay for them. The Air Force’s 59 C-5As, badly in need of upgrades to improve reliability, have become a likely target for the budget ax. In recent years, the mission-capable rate for C-5As fell below 50 percent, meaning that more than half of them were broken and could not fly.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/01/airforce_aircraft_budget_011010w/

[sharp_stick]

1. I saw one of these landing in Canada

when I was in grad school. This was shortly after the Canadians bought a few of them so there were hundreds of us at the airport to check it out. The size of this monster is something else.