Boeing has offered details about its US Air Force (USAF) contract to provide a modernised flight deck for the C-17 strategic transport.
The project will see Boeing design, manufacture, integrate, and qualify a modernised flightdeck for the aircraft, in addition to military certification, says the company.
Boeing will update USAF C-17s with a modular open systems architecture (MOSA) that will allow new capabilities and enhancements to be easily adopted.
“The C‑17A has been the backbone of global air mobility for over three decades,” says Travis Williams, vice-president of USAF Mobility & Training Services at Boeing.
“With the US Air Force requirement to keep the C-17A viable through 2075, we already have a clear and achievable roadmap to support their needs, and the needs of our international partners around the globe. By resolving avionics obsolescence and introducing MOSA, we’re preserving a proven, highly dependable, heavy airlifter and keeping it at the forefront of performance and efficiency for decades to come.”
The work stems from a December 2025 Department of War contract announcement that values the fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract at $266 million.
The move comes as the USAF contemplates the future of its airlift capabilities. In September 2025, the head of mobility for the USAF told FlightGlobal that it is considering a new transport to succeed both the C-17 and Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy from the mid-2040s.
“We’d like to have a plan in place so [that] when the service life starts to erode on the C-17, whether it’s wings, engines or more, we’ve got a competition already going,” said General John Lamontagne, chief of Air Mobility Command.
One alternative Lamontagne mooted is rebooting C-17 production – Boeing ceased production of the iconic four-engined transport at Long Beach, California in 2015.
The end of production came after Boeing delivered 275 examples between 1993 and 2015, with 222 going to the USAF and 53 to international partners.
Separately, on 30 January Boeing secured a Department of War contract worth $2.8 billion related to the upgrade of South Korea’s F-15K fleet.
The work includes integrating the Raytheon AN/APG-82(v)1 active electronically scanned array radar, the BAE Systems Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System electronic warfare suite, and new mission computers.
