New Delhi, June 6
In a move that will mollify the US, the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today cleared the purchase of ten heavy-lift military aircraft, the C 17 Globemaster III, for $4.1 billion (approximately Rs 18,000 crore).

This is the biggest defence deal between the two countries. “The CCS meeting cleared the proposal for purchase of the planes from the US through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route,” Defence Ministry officials said in New Delhi today. The maker Boeing will have to invest 30 per cent of the contract amount for setting up defence facilities in India. The C-17 is one of the most versatile heavy-lift military planes in the world with the ability to take off or land at unpaved runaways. The aircraft will augment the cargo-carrying capacity of the IAF.

The C-17 will be the second US military in the IAF fleet. The four-engine C-17 aircraft can lift one T-90 tank or one Arjun tank in a single swoop. It can lift artillery guns and be used for strategic lifting of troops and cargo.

The C-17 is capable of carrying a payload of 75 tonnes, almost double than the 40 tonne capacity of the IL 76, the biggest plane in the IAF fleet. However, the aircraft would come without some important communication equipment in the absence of the contentious Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) with the US. The deal comes just weeks after the IAF rejected warplanes produce by US companies - Boeing and Lockheed Martin - for the $10.4-billion fighter jet deal.