Defence Magazine

FLTSGT Scott Biddell (RAAF) listens intently to TSGT Hilton (USAF) during C-17 maintenance training at McChord Air Force Base near Seattle.
Photo by SGT Michelle Lucraft

The rapid acquisition, conducted under a foreign military sales agreement, came about following a request from Government in November last year for fully-costed options to acquire an ADF Heavy Airlift capability.

Australia's unique geo-strategy makes airlift an essential element of most ADF undertakings for both indigenous and offshore operations and the need for a Heavy Airlift Capability became even more apparent following events such as the Asian Tsunami, the Pakistan Earthquake and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, the long distances within Australia's own territory means training and exercises take on an expeditionary nature. Furthermore, recent experiences in sustaining a number of coincident expeditionary forces have highlighted the need to possess adequate airlift capabilities to secure Australia's national interests.

The Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal (AIRMSHL) Geoff Shepherd, said the introduction of the C-17 will enable the RAAF to address this requirement through the concept of Responsive Global Airlift (RGA).

"RGA seeks to deliver a balanced airlift capability across the spectrum of operations by matching specific capabilities of individual airlift platforms addressing the explicit needs of stakeholders for the achievement of joint outcomes," he said.

"This is particularly applicable to smaller air forces, such as ours, operating a limited number of airlift platforms since those platforms have to provide significant flexibility and responsiveness."

The first RAAF C-17 is currently being test flown at the Boeing Longbeach Facility and the official handover ceremony was held on 28 November at the same facility.

A C-17 Globemaster creating beautiful imagery through the clouds, mid-flight.
Photo provided by United States Air Force

The Government will be far better placed to assist our regional neighbours in response to natural disasters by providing humanitarian assistance in a vastly increased capacity. Similarly, the ability of the C-17 to provide up to four times the load carried by a C-130 over twice the distance much more rapidly gives the ADF an improved capability to make a substantially greater contribution to activities it is tasked to support.

"The introduction of this capability will enable the ADF to have access to a highly reliable, long-range, heavy lift aircraft designed to rapidly transport large outsized cargo and personnel over long distances," AIRMSHL Shepherd said.

"In addition, the cargo compartment of the C-17 is large enough that it will also be able to carry equipment such as the new Bushmaster and armoured fighting vehicles and the Abrams tank - in support of the Hardened and Networked Army Initiative."

The RGA model envisages that inter-theatre airlift will generally still deliver its load from a fixed hub to deployed nodes, from where medium and light transport will distribute pay-loads to in-theatre points. This can be carried out in parallel thereby improving the response time for air delivery of logistics. The ability of the C-17 to operate out of austere airfields and its capability to move bulk and oversize cargo over intercontinental distances directly to in-theatre small nodes, bypassing the intra-theatre requirements, significantly increases the flexibility of Air Force airlift capabilities.

AIRMSHL Shepherd said the inherent responsiveness of the RGA concept allows rapid intervention with greater impact in regional crises creating enhanced strategic effects.

"The ability of a single C-17 to deliver a troop of light armoured vehicles and their crews into basic airstrips in the region within hours offers different force application nuances than is currently available with lighter airlift assets.

"As a result, this enhanced airlift capability will also allow re-prioritisation of the tasking currently conducted by the C-130 fleet, thereby increasing the flexibility and effectiveness of the ADF by allowing the Air Lift Group to support and carryout more activities simultaneously."

A C-17 Globemaster from the 14th Airlift Squadron, Charleston Air Force Base, releases flares over the Atlantic Ocean near South Carolina, United States.
Photo provided by United States Air Force

Further, all C-17 operators world-wide follow the same aircraft management system. This will ensure that the ADF's level of interoperability with our Coalition partners and allies will be significantly enhanced. It will also be able to assist in the carriage of specialised Coalition loads when operating in a common theatre.

The first team of 48 RAAF technical personnel have completed their training with the United States Air Force Training Squadrons at McChord and Charleston Air Force Bases. The course ran for nearly 12 weeks and covered all the important technical issues related to the maintenance of the aircraft. On the whole there does not seem to be any delays in the entire induction program. The project remains on schedule, with the second aircraft to be delivered in mid-2007 and the balance of the fleet being delivered to Australia by mid-2008.

As the C-17 progresses through its role development within the RAAF, the ADF will have an extraordinary asset capable of rapidly delivering significant loads directly to our forces in the forward areas, either via air-land or air-drop, having travelled intercontinental distances at relatively high speeds. The ability to provide rapid, reliable and assured flow of support and logistics to deployed forces will act as a force multiplier for the ADF and in every sense of the word, will bring the ADF a truly RGA capability.

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RAAF inducts C-17 Globemaster