First Globemaster for IAF

Richard Benedikz

Boeing

24 January 2013

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has taken delivery of its first of 10 C-17 Globemaster III airlifter.

The C-17 will enter a U.S. Air Force flight test program at Edwards Air Force Base in Palmdale, California. Four more C-17's are on track to deliver the IAF this year and five in 2014.

"The C-17 met the stipulated airlift requirements of the Indian Air Force when it flew field evaluation trials in India during June 2010," said Air Commodore Sanjay Nimesh, Air Attaché at the Embassy of India.

India's Ministry of Defence signed an agreement with the U.S. government on June 15, 2011, to acquire 10 C-17 airlifters, making India the largest C-17 customer outside the United States. The governments finalized the Foreign Military Sales contract for the airframe on June 6, 2012.

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