Article Posted on : - May 25, 2012

UAE Air Force C-17. A Boeing photo.

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA (BNS): US defence major Boeing has delivered a fifth C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defence earlier this month.

The UAE accepted delivery of four C-17s in 2011 and has one more airlifter on order for delivery later this year.

The UAE, Boeing's sixth international C-17 customer, received its first airlifter on May 10, 2011. Since that time, the UAE Air Force and Air Defence C-17 fleet has amassed more than 2,000 flight hours and carried more than 3,000 passengers and nearly 4 million pounds of cargo.

As a part of the worldwide C-17 "virtual fleet," UAE C-17s are supported through the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III Integrated Sustainment Program (GISP), a Performance-Based Logistics agreement.

The GISP arrangement provides the highest airlift mission-capable rate at one of the lowest costs per flying hour, Boeing said.