Boeing said Tuesday it had delivered the second of six Globemaster
III military transport planes to the UAE Air Force and Air Defence.
The plane-maker is contracted to deliver two more C-17s this
year and two in 2012 to the UAE’s military, as the Gulf state moves to overhaul
its airlift capacities.
The UAE received its first C-17 in May and the model has
logged several missions, said Rich Cutting, Boeing UAE’s C-17 programme
manager.
With a full payload of 170,000 pounds, the C-17 can fly
2,400 nautical miles and land in 3,000 feet or less.
There are 231 C-17s in service worldwide, 210 of which are
held by the US Air Force.
Flush with petrodollars, the six countries of the Gulf have
unveiled ambitious plans to modernise their small armed forces. The region is
forecast to spend as much as $100bn in the next few years in overhauling their
military, in part to counter the perceived threat posed by Iran.
The UAE was in March named the region’s largest arms
importer and the sixth largest buyer of weapons worldwide by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute
The
US Defense Department said in May the Gulf state was seeking $100m worth of
supplies and maintenance support for its fleet of F-16 fighter jets.
The UAE in March committed six of its F-16 fighters and six
Mirage aircraft to help enforce the NATO-led no fly zone over Libya. One of its
F-16 jets crashed after veering off the runway at an air base in Italy after
landing.
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