Boeing is scheduled to deliver the last C-17 (airframe P-205) to the US Air Force on Aug. 18, 2010, which is about 15 months away.
That makes what happens in the Senate today very interesting. The House Appropriations committee last week added eight C-17s to its version of the Fiscal 2009 war supplemental bill. The Senate appropriations committee will meet today. Fifteen Senators have published a statement urging their colleagues on the committee to add 15 C-17s, but an industry source says the C-17 program is expecting "eight or less".
I'll be trying to follow the Senate action from -- appropriately enough -- a guided tour of the C-17 production line in Long Beach, California.
But the C-17 story will get more interesting as the summer goes on. The USAF is buying 205 C-17s to replace more than 300 retired Lockheed C-141s. More C-17s could be needed to if the USAF is allowed to retire the oldest 30 C-5As as well. But Senator Ted Kennedy and former Senator Joe Biden teamed up a few years ago to legally block the USAF from retiring any C-5As. With Biden now vice president, is Kennedy powerful enough himself to preserve the C-5A retirement ban -- and, with it, the likley fate of Westover AFB in Massachusettes -- if the Department of Defense makes a push to over-turn it?
That makes what happens in the Senate today very interesting. The House Appropriations committee last week added eight C-17s to its version of the Fiscal 2009 war supplemental bill. The Senate appropriations committee will meet today. Fifteen Senators have published a statement urging their colleagues on the committee to add 15 C-17s, but an industry source says the C-17 program is expecting "eight or less".
I'll be trying to follow the Senate action from -- appropriately enough -- a guided tour of the C-17 production line in Long Beach, California.
But the C-17 story will get more interesting as the summer goes on. The USAF is buying 205 C-17s to replace more than 300 retired Lockheed C-141s. More C-17s could be needed to if the USAF is allowed to retire the oldest 30 C-5As as well. But Senator Ted Kennedy and former Senator Joe Biden teamed up a few years ago to legally block the USAF from retiring any C-5As. With Biden now vice president, is Kennedy powerful enough himself to preserve the C-5A retirement ban -- and, with it, the likley fate of Westover AFB in Massachusettes -- if the Department of Defense makes a push to over-turn it?
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