Browne: Purchase of extra C-17 will 'significantly boost' UK military operations

Defence Secretary Des Brown made the announcement yesterday, Thursday 26 July 2007, in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament. Also announced was the creation of a new deployable 2 Star Divisional Level Headquarters, which will lead the Regional Command Centre South in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said:

"A sixth C-17 will provide a significant boost to our ability to transport troops and equipment quickly to wherever they are needed, particularly in support of our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The Government has always made it clear that support to frontline operations is our first priority. Today's announcement underlines this commitment.

"These measures demonstrate that we are adjusting our structures to meet demands and to ensure that our forces are rotated."

This announcement follows the settlement of the defence budget for the next three years, which continues the longest period of sustained real terms growth in planned defence spending since the 1980s.

The new division will be known as 'HQ 6 Division' and will be based in York with a core of 55 Service personnel, drawn from existing structures.

On operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the current C-17 fleet has been used extensively by the UK to transport items of military equipment including Chinook and Apache helicopters and Tornado F3 fighters. In a humanitarian role, it was used during the SE Asia Tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake to deliver aid and large rescue equipment.

The aircraft's capabilities are:

• Take off from a 7,600-ft (2,316 m) airfield, carry a payload of 160,000 pounds (72,576 kg), fly 2,400 nautical miles (4,445 km) and land in 3,000 ft (914 m) on a small airfield by day or night.
• Carry 54 troops in addition to its equipment load or a total of 102 troops ready for combat.
• All that is needed to operate the C-17 is a flight crew comprised of two pilots and one loadmaster, supported by advanced cargo systems and an advanced digital avionics system.
• An externally blown flap system allows a steep, low-speed final approach with low-landing speeds for short-field landings.
• The C-17 can carry loads of up to 75 tonnes, fly distances up to 2,400 nautical miles (4,445 km), and land in remote, unpaved airfields in rough, land-locked regions. This makes it an invaluable asset for military, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions.

The new C-17 aircraft will join the rest of the C-17 fleet at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire when it enters service in late 2008/early 2009.

As part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, we are deploying on a rotational basis with our Canadian and Dutch allies a 2 Star (Divisional level) Headquarters in command of Regional Command (South) (RC(S)) based in Kandahar.

In order to ease the pressure on our armed forces of fulfilling this commitment in parallel with the requirement to provide HQ Multi National Division (South) in Basra, southern Iraq, we have decided temporarily to establish an additional 2-Star deployable HQ