LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Canada has agreed to purchase four U.S.-built C-17 military cargo jets to be delivered as early as this fall.
Boeing said Friday the planes would be built at its Long Beach, Calif., plant and would be based in Trenton, Ontario where the majority of Canada's airlift operations are centered.
The C-17 Globemaster III is a major component of Canada's program to modernize and improve its airlift capacity as it continues operations in Afghanistan. Canadian media reported the value of the purchase at about $3.4 billion Canadian ($2.8 billion U.S.).
Boeing said in a news release that the long-distance but tactical Globemaster III had become an "airlifter of choice" for international customers with Canada being the fourth such buyer for the plane.
The fact that the C-17 will be built in the United States stirred up complaints in Ottawa this week that Quebec's aerospace industry was not getting a large enough share of the project.
The planes are part of Boeing's production schedule that will keep the Long Beach assembly plant running until mid-2009 when it is scheduled to cease operations. The plant's biggest customer by far is the United States, which has Boeing under contract to produce 190 Globemasters for the Air Force.
Some Air Force officers and analysts have warned that operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were accelerating the wear-and-tear on the C-17 fleet and could result in the planes reaching the end of their operational lives sooner than earlier projections had stated.
