Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!veritas!amdcad!amdcad!military From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: C-17, F-14 vs FA-18 Message-ID: <1991Mar23.061719.5018@amd.com> Date: 23 Mar 91 06:17:19 GMT References: <1991Mar18.132459.14027@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar20.032310.29056@cbnews.att.com> Sender: cdr@amd.com (Carl Rigney) Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 23 Approved: military@amd.com From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: Allan Bourdius >... The C-17 will give MAC an >unequaled capability to bring C-5A/B sized and weighted loads into C-130 >capable airfields or unprepared strips. This is very, very important if >we are planning to move any sizeable military force with great haste. Agreed that it is very important, but what makes you think it will ever be available? The C-5 was supposed to provide exactly that capability. The C-17 marketing brochures of today read exactly like the C-5 ones of thirty years ago. Why make the same mistake twice? >A C-5 needs a runway... Strategic airlifters available only in small numbers always operate from runways. They are too valuable to risk in combat-zone operations. The C-5 has almost exactly the same theoretical dirt-strip capability as the C-17; it has never been allowed to use it. -- "[Some people] positively *wish* to | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry