August 10, 1999

British Transport Competition: The British have canceled their competition for a near term airlift solution. The competition was called the SSTA(Short Term Strategic Airlift). The Boeing C-17 was competing with commercial bids using the Russian An-124 and a mix of Airbus transports. The problem was that the C-17 was too expensive and not all of the competitors met all of the performance requirements. The U.K. will now explore other options. One option is to enhance current supplemental solutions which include using Russian An-124 transports. -- Tom Trinko