WASHINGTON - The final series-production Boeing C-17 Globemaster III will finally have a home after the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on June 26 that the State Department had granted a government-to-government request by India for the foreign military sale of the aircraft. The last C-17 to come off the Long Beach, California, production line was cleared for sale to India at an estimated $366.2 million, including add-on equipment, spare parts and support and sustainment. This follows a two-year effort in which several countries - including Qatar and Australia as well as India - angled for purchase of the final Boeing 'white-tail'.
The sale includes four Turbofan F-117-PW-100 engines, along with one AN/AAR-47 Missile Warning System, one AN/ALE-47 Countermeasures Dispensing System (CMDS), one AN/APX-119 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Transponder, precision navigation equipment, spare and repair parts, maintenance, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, warranty, Quality Assurance, ferry support, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, logistics and technical support services, and other related elements of logistics and program support.
India currently fields 10 C-17s ordered from Boeing under a $4.1 billion contract signed on June 14, 2011 (and finalized in June 2012). These C-17s became operational with a new India Air Force (IAF) squadron - 81 Squadron, formed at Hindon Air Force Station, Ghaziabad - following induction of the first three units into service on September 2, 2013. The arrival of the C-17s initiated the slow phase-out of the service's existing fleet of Soviet-legacy Il-76s which were delivered in the mid-1980s. The IAF also sought to purchase three additional C-17s - a proposal that was not cleared until July 31, 2015, by which time Boeing was down to its last five platforms, four of which had already been promised to Qatar.
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