Bulgaria as part of a group 11 European Union countries will purchase three Boeing C 17 aircraft from the US, following an agreement signed with the Pentagon and Nato on September 24 2008, Reuters said. Two of the aircraft will be purchased directly from Boeing and the third will be supplied from the US Air Forces.

The long-range C 17 Globemaster III is a heavy transport aircraft, which remains the backbone of US Air Mobility Command inter-theater transport around the world. Its ability to operate from shorter and rougher runways has made it especially useful during the global war on terror in Afghanistan.

In a statement released by aerospace giant, Boeing, the delivery of the first aircraft is expected next Spring. A spokesperson for the company said that details on the delivery of the aircraft are yet to be ironed out.

The C-17s will be configured to the same general standard as C-17s operated by the US Air Force and the Royal Air Force, including night flying and air-to-air refuelling capabilities.

The crews and maintenance personnel will be multinational, selected from participating countries, and they will be trained to meet the operational standard for Nato operations.

Each country will be allocated equal hours for operative purposes and thereafter will be able to use those planes for whatever they need ? military deployment, humanitarian missions or disaster relief.

Each aircraft costs more $200 million, Reuters reports.

They will be deployed in tactical operations in places such as Afghanistan and the Balkans, on missions in which Bulgaria participates alongside the UN, or as part of the Nato coalition. The ten countries participating in the joint venture are Bulgaria, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Holland, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Lithuania and the USA. All of them will be able to share a common aircraft base and logistical facilities, as reported by Dnevnik on October 2 2008.

In an official statement from NATO, USA, the Netherlands and Slovenia have all signed the Strategic Air Command’s Memorandum of Understanding, joining Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania and Sweden. Other SAC nations are expected to join the signatories by the end of June 2008.