Boeing’s leadership is actively considering a regeneration of the production line for the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter, which finally closed after Boeing delivered its last C-17 in 2015.
The news emerged at the 2025 Paris Air Show on 17 June during the Q&A session following a briefing involving Turbo Sjogren, vice president and general manager of International Government Services for Boeing Global Services.
ESD initially asked, in light of the fact that most European airlifters are unable to transport main battle tanks (MBTs) and other heavier armoured vehicles, whether Boeing has considered a successor programme to the C-17, which first flew on 15 September 1991 and has a maximum payload of 77.5 tonnes.
To this Sjogren replied, “You’re right: that product has been extremely successful and there is currently no planned replacement for that aircraft, as a result of which we are currently undertaking with the United States Air Force and all of our international operators an extension programme, as well as a modernisation programme for that aircraft.”
Sjogren then added, “Without going into too much detail, there has recently been some interest from a number of countries about ‘Could we restart the production?’ It is a very extraordinary effort to do but, perhaps reflective of the utility of the aircraft, that is something we are currently looking at with one particular country that has raised the possibility of doing so. It’s very, very early in its infancy. I say that because, to answer your question directly, there is a possibility, if the economics and if the demand, in view of what’s going on in the world, would support that.”
There are currently 276 C-17s in service with the US Air Force, the air forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, and with NATO’s Heavy Airlift Wing at Pápa Air Base in Hungary.
The type is currently expected to remain in service until 2070, hence Sjogren noting that a C-17 extension and modernisation is required. Before the C-17 line in Long Beach, California, was closed, Boeing did manufacture 10 ‘white tail’ C-17s – aircraft produced without customers at the time – but these aircraft were taken up by Australia (two aircraft), the UAE (two), Canada (one), Qatar (four) and India (one).
In Europe the Royal Air Force is the sole independent operator of the C-17, with a fleet of eight aircraft, while the multinational NATO Airlift Management Programme owns the three C-17s of the Heavy Airlift Wing. These are operated under NATO’s Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) programme, which involves 12 participating nations: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States, with new NATO members Finland and Sweden also associated with the programme.
While Sjogren did not name the country with which Boeing is discussing a potential restarting of the C-17 production line, there is a possibility that it could be Japan. In February 2025 Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, and expressed Tokyo’s willingness to purchase US airlifters, even though none are currently in production, according to a report by Kyodo News.
Like the Airbus A400M and Embraer C-390 transport aircraft operated in Europe and elsewhere, Japan’s Kawasaki C-2 airlifters do not have the capacity to lift heavy armoured vehicles like MBTs, which can typically weigh more than 60 tonnes.
