C-17 and C-5 Cargo Planes Will Be Replaced With One Aircraft: USAF
Plans for a Next Generation Airlift platform, or NGAL, targeted for entry into service in the 2040s, are starting to coalesce.
Joseph Trevithick
Published Sep 23, 2025 7:58 PM EDT
The U.S. Air Force is currently looking toward a single next-generation airlifter to supplant both the C-17A Globemaster III and the C-5M Galaxy, starting in the mid-2040s.
The U.S. Air Force is currently looking toward a single next-generation airlifter to supplant both the C-17A Globemaster III and the C-5M Galaxy, starting in the mid-2040s. The service is still in the early stages of formulating its requirements for a Next Generation Airlift (NGAL) platform, but has already put emphasis on greater speed and operational flexibility, as well as the ability to better defend against growing threats when on the ground and in the air.
Air Force Gen. John Lamontagne, head of Air Mobility Command (AMC), discussed the current state of NGAL with TWZ and others at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference yesterday. As of the start of Fiscal Year 2025, the Air Force had 222 C-17As and 52 C-5Ms in its inventory.
A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III. USMC
The C-17A, which first entered service in 1995, has a top speed of around 520 miles per hour and a maximum payload capacity of some 82 tons, according to the official Air Force fact sheet. The much larger C-5Ms, which started their careers in the 1980s as C-5Bs and Cs, can carry up to 135 tons of cargo and/or personnel at up to around the same speed. Both types do typically cruise a slower speeds. They can also be refueled in flight to extend their range. Neither the C-17 nor the C-5 are currently in production.
https://www.twz.com/air/c-17-and-c-5-cargo-planes-will-be-replaced-with-one-aircraft-usaf
