The Quest for Relevant Air Power

54 │ POST–COLD WAR CHALLENGES
provides interim solutions. In 2001 the RAF leased four C-17
Globemasters from the Boeing Company with the option to buy or
extend at the end of a seven-year period. 259 Lacking adequate airlift
capacities, the German armed forces chartered Ukrainian and Russian
An-124 transport aircraft for operations in Afghanistan. 260
Moreover, given the severe delays and cost escalation in current
aircraft programmes, many air forces have been obliged to extend
the life of their current inventories. Upgrading and modernization
can offer either improvement in an existing role or an interim
capability. 261 In the post–Cold War era, upgrade programmes have
presented both a necessity and a dilemma. While they have served
as necessary gap fillers, they have simultaneously contributed to
further delays of the major aerospace programmes by diverting
already scarce resources.
Shared Ownership. For certain excessively expensive key assets,
shared ownership has long been pursued as a necessary option
in the context of NATO. The prime example is the NATO
Airborne Early Warning and Control Force. Through the
NAEW&CF, NATO members were able to acquire an airborne
early warning capability at much lower day-to-day operating costs
than would have been the case if operated on an individual national
basis. 262 As regards wide area air-to-ground surveillance,
NATO has launched the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS)
Core project. Similar to the NAEW&CF, AGS Core is intended to
be procured and operated by NATO but financed by alliance
members. The system originally was supposed to integrate synthetic
aperture radar on the basis of the Airbus A321 and the
high-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft (HALE
RPA) Global Hawk. 263 In the meantime, however, the projected air
segment of AGS Core had been reduced to its HALE RPA component.
On 25 September 2009, 15 NATO nations signed an MOU,
and AGS Core is anticipated to be operational as of 2012. 264
Another NATO initiative is the Strategic Airlift Capability programme.
A letter of intent to commence contract negotiations to
multilaterally acquire C-17 Globemasters was signed in September
2006. Apart from 10 NATO member countries (Bulgaria,
Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Romania, Slovenia, and the United States), participants include
Finland and Sweden, both Partnership for Peace nations.