Boeing's C-17B: A Turbulent Evolution
BOEING'S C-17B: A TURBULENT EVOLUTION
Facing funding challenges for its theater-tested C-17A Globemaster III aircraft, Boeing Corporation is working to drum up congressional support for its touted C-17B prototype.
by Christian Sheehy, MLF Editor
The C-17A is the mainstay of the U.S. military’s global air transportation system. The aircraft is also having some degree of international success as several countries have added it to their inventory with others possible. Looking to the future, and to ways to keep the C-17 in production and develop a new generation platform Boeing has proposed the C-17B to meet not only strategic needs but future tactical intra-theater needs as well. Military Logistics Forum interviewed Alan Baker of Boeing’s Airlift Business Development division in an effort to find out just how Boeing plans to keep this storied program aloft.
With ongoing bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for additional strategic airlift, The Boeing Company has based the need for the continued existence for and evolution of its C-17 program on Air Force testimony that the current fleet has been used well beyond programmed flying hours and that future Army and Marine Corps requirements have not been fully quantified.
Boeing is currently working on concept development and a rapid prototype effort on its C-17B as early as 2010 to demonstrate key performance improvements that could be fielded by the middle of the next decade. “These projected improvements to the current C-17 program will bridge the theater airlift gap and validate technologies that will be useful for the Joint Future Theater Lift [JFTL] development,” said Baker. “The C-17B will answer 80 percent of the stated JFTL airlift requirements and field capability in less than 50 percent of the time and at 20 percent of the development cost of a new-start system.”
There is currently a decade-long gap between the 2015 date the Army will reach initial operational capability for its new Future Combat System (FCS) vehicles and when the next generation airlifter, the JFTL, is scheduled to enter service. Present carry capacity issues have determined the Army’s Stryker vehicle and its proposed FCS vehicles are too large to fit on a current C-130J. Aside from footprint incompatibility issues, a new scheme of maneuver proposed by the Army requires present Stryker and future FCS equipment to be delivered “combat-configured” at multiple points on the battlefield. Boeing indicates that the C-17B would mitigate this theater airlift shortfall by providing the transport capability for the Army’s transformed brigade combat teams as soon as they become operational. “The C-17B will be able to move these formations in their essential combat configuration over strategic distances directly to where the joint force commander needs them,” said Baker.
Boeing touts that its proposed C-17B will have direct delivery, enhanced survivability, and autonomous landing capabilities enabling it to support future battlefield deployment velocity demands for vehicles, troops and cargo. “Once fielded, the C-17B will provide the military the ability to introduce heavy, sustainable, and lethal ground forces at multiple points on the battlefield more rapidly than any other aircraft,” said Baker. The company also noted that its B variant would be provide the warfighter with a short-field takeoff and landing capability via higher thrust engines and advanced double-slotted wing flap technology. A host of improvements in the cockpit would include an autonomous landing system, an opportune landing site system, an engine-out control system and a precision landing augmentation system.
“The C-17B will offer the flexibility to introduce heavy, sustainable, and lethal ground forces at multiple austere landing sites on the battlefield more rapidly than any other aircraft,” said Baker. “With briefer takeoff runs, joint commanders will be able to rapidly reposition intra-theater forces and reinforce gains all while minimizing exposure to enemy ground positions.” In situations where finished landing strips are unavailable, Boeing said the new C-17 variant would offer soft-field performance by way of an additional center main landing gear and tire pressure system. The company also indicated that the new variant will quickly deliver the entire range of warfighter or humanitarian cargo over intercontinental distances. ♦