Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • U.S. asks Brazil to buy Boeing fighter jets 10/2/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 NATO to buy big Boeing planes for airlift missions Associated Press BRUSSELS, Belgium -- In a NATO initiative, 12 nations signed a deal today to jointly buy and operate three giant transport planes to fill a shortfall that has dogged international missions from Afghanistan to Sudan. Under the agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, they will jointly acquire three Boeing C-17s and place them at a new operating base in Hungary early next year under the command of a U.S. officer, said NATO spokesman James Appathurai. The planes will be available for NATO, European Union and United Nations missions. Appathurai said the arrival of the planes will provide an "important new capability" for the alliance and is a model for how smaller nations can pool resources to acquire equipment beyond the reach of their individual defense budgets. The planes will be based at Papa air base in Hungary with multinational crews. The C-17 is the workhorse of the U.S. Air Force. However, other NATO allies lack such big planes, making it harder for them to transport troops, equipment and supplies on peacekeeping, humanitarian or combat missions in places like Afghanistan and Chad. The 10 NATO members that took part in today's deal are Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States. Britain and Canada have separately acquired a total of 10 of the planes. Two non-NATO countries -- Sweden and Finland -- also signed on. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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