The Global C-17 Sustainment Partnership

C-17 over Hawaii

The rising cost of maintenance has made it a greater concern to the world’s militaries, and new contract vehicles are reflecting that. Under the C-17 GSP/GISP, Boeing has total system support responsibility for the big transport aircraft, including materiel management and depot maintenance, to support customer fleets around the world. The goal is total aircraft sustainment support under a single contract, in order to achieve improvements in mission readiness, while reducing operating and support costs.

While the C-17 may have limited production time in its future, the C-17 GSP is likely to continue for many years. The initial C-17 GSP contract has grown and broadened, even as Boeing’s customer base grew in the USAF (now 223), Australia (6), Britain (8), Canada (4), India (10-16), Qatar (4), NATO (3), the UAE (6) – and possibly Kuwait (1).

This in-depth, public-access DII Spotlight Article offers key statistics for the C-17A, explains the Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership’s (GSP) components, and details its contracts.

Game-Changer: USA Developing UAV Aerial Refueling

2007 AAR experiment

Quick question: what’s the biggest limiting factor in today’s aircraft? Answer: the pilot. Fortunately for pilots, they’re also an aircraft’s greatest advantage, which will keep them in the mix, and in the cockpit, for some time to come. Those limitations are bringing unmanned aircraft into the combat picture, however, especially when it comes to the greatest limitation a pilot places on an aircraft: aerial endurance. Remaining awake, active, and effective in a manned fighter aircraft for 72 hours straight is simply not within the realm of possibility. On the other hand, a UAV with that endurance level, flown by pilots on the ground or at sea who can hand the aircraft off to a colleague while they depart for a coffee, bathroom break, or sleep, could easily remain aloft that long. All it needs is an appropriate level of mechanical reliability – and, of course, the ability to take on fuel from an aerial tanker aircraft.

That simple concept has profound implications for the ways in which airpower might be used.

Rapid Fire Jan. 7, 2013: Picking a Secretary, Or a Fight?