Article Posted on : - Aug 23, 2013

The third Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airlifter for the Indian Air Force departed for India Aug. 20 from the company's Long Beach facility. A Boeing photo

WASHINGTON (PTI): Boeing has delivered the third C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The plane departed for India on August 20 from the company's Long Beach facility. It joins the first and second C-17 airlifters, which arrived in India in last two months.

Boeing is on track to deliver two more C-17s to the IAF this year and five in 2014, the company said in a statement.

In operation since 1991, the C-17 is a large, versatile military transport aircraft able to carry heavy, oversize loads long distances and land on rough and unprepared surfaces.

It has been used in humanitarian and military missions around the world and recently surpassed 2.6 million flight hours.

Boeing has delivered 256 C-17s, including 222 to the US Air Force and a total of 34 to Australia, Canada, India, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the 12-member Strategic Airlift Capability initiative of NATO and Partnership for Peace nations.