India has submitted a formal request to the US government for 10 Boeing C-17 airlifters under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) arrangement.
The request comes hot on the heels of an order for six C-17s from the UAE, a further 10 for the USAF and a seventh aircraft for the RAF, meaning the C-17 line, which was once under threat of being wound up in 2009, now has an order book of 259 aircraft and a backlog of 47, and will remain open until at least 2013 at current production rates of about 15 aircraft per year.
