USAF Air Mobility Command & An-124

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Someone recently attempted to annoy me with the fact that the Bundeswehr sometimes charters civilian Russian transport planes (like An-124) for transport flight to Afghanistan due to a lack of heavy-lift aviation.
It was of course an American who was proud of his nation's C-17 and C-5B - and it wasn't the first such attempt.

Well, the world is ugly, and just in case somebody thinks about following his lead; the USAF Air Mobility Command charters An-124 all the time. I've heard about 150 flights in 2006, 250 flights in 2007...
That's not embarrassing - it's simply much less expensive than to buy and operate an airlift fleet for the greatest imaginable demand.

S O

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