The US Air Force has ordered 15 C-17 military transport planes from US manufacturer Boeing valued at 2.9 billion dollars, the Pentagon announced Friday. "The Air Force is awarding a firm fixed price contract to (Boeing subsidiary) McDonnell Douglas Corporation of Long Beach, California for an amount not to exceed 2.95 billion dollars ... for the procurement of 15 C-17 aircraft," the Department of Defence said in a statement.
The statement had no information on the date of the delivery of the aircraft. The contract revives the fortunes of the aircraft, known as the Globemaster III, a plane at the heart of the US Air Force's fleet of long-range transport planes. The C-17 can fly long distances and land on short landing strips.
Boeing had been on the verge of scrapping C-17 production in 2006 when orders for the plane dried up. The move revives work at the Boeing plant in Long Beach which would otherwise have closed down by mid-year, directly affecting some 5,500 Boeing workers. The US Air Force has ordered up to now 190 C-17s. Boeing has also sold six of the airplanes to Britain, four to Canada and four to Australia.