National Defense Department of Canada to buy more C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft 1001132.

Despite Canada's involvement in more recent years in Afghanistan, where the aircraft is used as a strategic airlifter, Ottawa has resisted calls for more purchases.

The Air Force Association of Canada in a policy paper called for more acquisitions, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

Boeing is promoting the giant tactical transport in sales campaigns worldwide and is also pushing for what it calls a global sustainment partnership, in which the manufacturer looks after all aspects of the upkeep of the aircraft.

Canada's small fleet of Globemaster IIIs help provide everything from the rapid delivery of troops and cargo transport to oversized combat equipment from coast to coast and to anywhere else worldwide, the Canadian air force said on its website.

Rapid, reliable and flexible, the strategic and tactical C-17 is equipped with advanced digital avionics, has a maximum range of approximately 5,500 nautical miles and can carry a payload of up to 160,000 pounds due to its four Pratt and Whitney 2040 engines that produce 40,440 pounds of thrust, the air force says.

To illustrate the power of these aircraft, one C-17 can haul three CH-146 Griffon helicopters with refueling tanks, or one Leopard 2 tank, or as many as 102 paratroopers, Canadian air force says.

But perhaps most useful of all, the C-17's ability to fly long distances and land in remote airfields makes it a premier transporter for military, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, the air force says.

The U.S. Air Force says the C-17 Globemaster III is the most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force, "capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area."