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C-17 Sustainment Team wins Defense Logistics Award for C-17 Support

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  • By 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The U.S. Air Force Globemaster Division, located in the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, and Boeing were named the "Best Logistics Strategy" award winners at the 8th annual Defense Logistics Awards ceremony on Nov. 30.

Through the C-17 Globemaster III Integrated Sustainment Program, the Air Force has partnered with Boeing for C-17 sustainment since the delivery of the first aircraft in 1993, transitioning to a system-level performance based logistics contract in 1998.

Today, the GISP is headquartered in a Combined Program Office at Robins, supporting a 237 C-17 worldwide "virtual fleet" - 212 in the U.S. Air Force, including active duty, Guard and Reserve units, and 25 with international customers including United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Qatar Emiri Air Force, United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defense and the 12-member Strategic Airlift Capability initiative of NATO and Partnership for Peace nations.

The GISP "virtual fleet" arrangement ensures mission readiness by providing all C-17 users the benefits of access to an extensive support network for parts availability worldwide and economies of scale when purchasing materials.

"The C-17 Virtual Fleet has been a "game changing" concept of operations for C-17 support," said Trevor Burke, Strategic Airlift Capability of NATO team leader. "The C-17 Virtual Fleet is all about affordability, extreme affordability - like none before."

The Defense Logistics awards were established to honor, recognize and promote logisticians in the U.S. Department of Defense and the defense industry that have made a significant contribution to military logistics. These logisticians support interoperability and transformation through logistics initiatives, programs and processes, according to the Defense Logistics conference website.

This marks the second time in a month the C-17 Globemaster CPO was recognized for program excellence. On Nov. 6, the C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership program was selected as winner of Aviation Week's Program Excellence Award in the Sustainment category. This award recognizes innovation and leadership in managing the aerospace and defense industry's top programs.