Originally Posted by
WChou
The US military is hurting for heavy and/or oversize airlift. Much of this work has been contracted out to Russian companies because they have the most suitable transports which are often Il-76, An-124 and sometimes the An-225. They are a common sight at many bases nowadays.
Interesting choice of words.
The US Military isn't hurting for heavy or oversize airlift.... one of the unique advantages our military has over other world militaryies is the ability to project power / or in other words the logistical backbone. Add up all of the big Stratlift birds in the fleet and it outnumbers the number of all the planes in the world's largest airlines. Include smaller cargo aircraft and the gap just grows.
Now that being said..... our demand for airlift just out strips our capacity. There are a limited number of these behemoths running around the world, and the US is certainly a big consumer.
CUTiger78: I'd disagree with Palal too, but he left in a special qualifier.... it's the best airlifter for non-containerized (I would have said palletized, as the US Military airlift system is planned around 463L pallets) cargo. Which is quite true if you are going just purely on Cargo Capacity. Being a good aircraft for roll on roll off cargo is too easy though. The C-130/141/5/17 definitely shine when it comes to loading / offloading palletized cargo quickly.
Once you start getting into a palletized cargo set, the AN-124 is probably your last choice, as even our commercial partners that we contract with use a palletized system with rollers. Interestingly enough, the AN-124 has a built in crane to make up for the fact it was designed around a palletized cargo system. Slower, but simpler.