Le Bourget, France Qatar has signed an agreement to purchase four of the last C-17 Globemasters, announced Boeing at the Paris Air Show. That means only one of the airlifts must still be sold before the assembly line closes later this year. “We are very pleased with the C-17s from Boeing and look forward to doubling our fleet to enhance worldwide operations,” said Gen. Ahmed Al-Malki, the deputy commander of the Qatar Emiri Air Force and chair of its airlift committee. Boeing officials said the additional C-17s will be used to support the QEAF’s transport, airdrop, and humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations requirements. Qatar was the first Middle Eastern customer to sign on to the C-17 program, receiving its first two in 2009 and two more in 2012.
The stand-up of the Space Force, and now its early overhaul and the creation of a new Space Systems Command, are all about resilience: Ensuring that space capabilities, which the whole country relies on, could survive a concerted attack by a near-peer adversary. As part of that drive, a new…