The Pentagon plans to disassemble its C-17 production line and store the machine “tooling” at an undisclosed site, in a move designed to allow the Air Force to build more Globemasters should an effort to modernize the service's C-5 airlifter fleet fail, according to a draft version of the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review.

The draft of the top-to-bottom Pentagon review alludes to the months-long debate over the future of the C-17 program only once, stating “C- 17 tooling will be moved to offsite storage to preserve the option of procuring additional C-17s” after the final Globemaster is built in 2008.

InsideDefense.com obtained a copy of the draft report this week. The document is stamped “For Official Use Only” and has not yet been publicly released; it is widely expected to be delivered to lawmakers in early February along with the Pentagon's fiscal year 2007 budget request.

At issue is the military's strategy for moving forces, equipment and supplies to conduct combat, humanitarian relief and other missions. Debate about the topic has heated up in recent months, after Air Force officials indicated they plan to buy only 180 C-17 airlifters. Critics of the decision have used as their prime cannon fodder comments made by former U.S. Transportation Command chief Gen. John Handy, who in 2004 told lawmakers the military would need 222 Globemasters.

For its part, C-17 builder Boeing has said if the Air Force halts the buy at 180, it will be forced to close the Long Beach, CA-based C-17 production line.

TRANSCOM chief Gen. Norton Schwartz in early December first publicly floated the idea of keeping the C-17 production line “warm” to hedge against a failed C-5 modernization plan, which officials admit would leave the service hamstrung to carry out future airlift missions ( ITAF, Dec. 9, 2005, p1).

Senior Air Force and Pentagon leaders have explained the decision to limit the C-17 fleet to 180 by highlighting the results of the not-yet-public Mobility Capability Study, which -- according to those senior officials -- concludes the military has enough future airlifters in its current budget to complete future missions.

Boeing is expected to deliver the 180th -- and final -- Globemaster to the Air Force in the spring of calendar year 2008.

The new TRANSCOM chief said he would prefer keeping the C-17 production line “warm.” His idea is essentially a hedge that would give the Air Force “insurance” if the service is unable to keep an ample number of C-5 airlifters flying

“If there is a decision to curtail the production of the C-17 at 180, one has to seriously consider ways to hedge that by curtailing production in a way that doesn't foreclose ways to walk the dog back if you have to,” Schwartz said.

That could be accomplished by “warm-storing” the production line in Long Beach, he said. “You could disassemble the production line and store it someplace other than Long Beach; you could let the thing just go away and not worry about retaining the tooling,” the TRANSCOM chief said. “There are options here . . . and my recommendation [to senior Air Force leaders] would be to not allow the production line to just disappear.”

Asked for an estimate on how much it would cost to store the C-17 line, Schwartz said he has not calculated a “detailed” cost. Several industry sources have since told ITAF any of those options would likely cost millions of dollars each year -- at a time when defense budgets are expected to tighten. It remains unclear if the Air Force would foot the storage bill, require Boeing to pay or seek some kind of cost-sharing deal.

In an attempt to breathe new life into the C-17 program, a group of senators sent a letter to President Bush Dec. 16 asking him to include dollars in the FY-07 defense budget request to purchase more Globemasters ( ITAF, Dec. 23, 2005, p13). In the letter, senators highlighted a recent study conducted by the influential Defense Science Board recommending the Pentagon “keep open the option to acquire additional C-17” cargo aircraft beyond the 180 planes the Air Force plans to buy.

Such a move, however, would require the Defense Department to commit more money to the cargo plane program, in order to keep the production line open as officials finish work on the Pentagon's FY-07 budget request.

The DSB report highlighted by the lawmakers, dated September 2005 and released Nov. 10 by the Pentagon, raised concerns about the adequacy of the Pentagon's organic and strategic airlift and aerial tankers -- capability areas where the Defense Department is considering major acquisition decisions.

“The complexities of dealing with the global war on terrorism make the airlift and tanker forces major weapons systems, not simply transport means,” the task force said in its 163-page report. “Defense commitments and unpredictable future intervention needs push airlift and tankers into the role of ‘first responders.'”

The letter was signed by 13 senators, including California's two members of the chamber, Dianne Feinstein (D) and Barbara Boxer (D). Other signatories on the letter to the president were Senate Armed Services Committee members Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Susan Collins (R-ME), James Talent (R-MO) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).