A Reprieve For Long Beach?

Could reports of the imminent death of Boeing's Long Beach, CA plant be premature? Representatives with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) announced Wednesday a Letter of Intent (LOI) has been issued to launch contract negotiations for the purchase of several C-17 Globemaster III transport planes.

The LOI follows six months of intense negotiations among 13 NATO allies looking to purchase the C-17s -- Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, The Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and the US. If finalized, the purchase agreement could keep the southern California C-17 production facility open past its expected 2009 closure date.

In addition to the LOI, the nations also developed a plan to create the new "NATO Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC)" base at Germany's Ramstein Air Force Base. Initially comprised of 3 to 4 C-17s, the SAC will be flown by multinational aircrews (pilots and loadmasters), and a multinational military structure will be created to command and control the aircraft.

Discussions are underway with NATO's NAEW&C Force Command, the unit which flies the NATO AWACS, to determine the appropriate military organizational structure. The SAC nations intend to conclude contract negotiations this year, and have the goal of receiving the first C-17 by the middle or end of next year.

As Aero-News reported last month, Boeing issued a stop order to many of its suppliers on the C-17 project, in the absence of new orders for the aircraft. At that time, Boeing reported it had enough orders for Globemasters to keep the plant open through 2009.

Details of the purchase agreement -- such as how many aircraft will make up the order -- have yet to be finalized... but NATO is apparently wasting little time in planning for its use of the planes. Plans are already underway to line up pilots for training at US Air Force facilities, and a rough delivery timeframe is in place.

Initial operating capability is planned for late 2007, with full operating capability in 2009 based on planes being delivered every six months (hinting at an initial order total of around five aircraft.)

The concept behind the SAC is similar to the SALIS (Strategic Airlift Interim Solution) arrangement, which involves the chartering of An-124 aircraft. The 13 NATO nations will fly the planes based on sovereign national requirements. While these national requirements will often be related to NATO operations, they may also be exclusively of a national character, or for UN, EU, or other international purposes (such as humanitarian airlift and disaster relief).

The SAC planes will be configured in the same fashion as C-17s flown by the US Air Force and the UK Royal Air Force. Air crews will be trained to the same basic standards, including air-to-air refueling and night vision operations.

FMI: www.nato.int, www.boeing.com