Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS)
NATO member countries have pooled their resources to charter special aircraft that give the Alliance the capability to transport quickly heavy equipment across the globe by air.
Eng. / Fr. / Ru. /NATO member countries have pooled their resources to charter special aircraft that give the Alliance the capability to transport quickly heavy equipment across the globe by air.
The multinational airlift consortium is chartering six Antonov An-124-100 transport aircraft, which are capable of handling ‘outsize’ – unusually large – cargo.
The Russian and Ukrainian Antonov aircraft are being used as an interim solution to meet shortfalls in European strategic airlift capabilities, pending deliveries of Airbus A400M aircraft, expected to start in 2010. This is why the project is called SALIS - Strategic Airlift Interim Solution.
The consortium is led by Germany and includes Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.
This is one of two complementary initiatives aimed at providing NATO with strategic airlift capabilities. The other is the Strategic Airlift Capability (NSAC), under which fifteen NATO countries plus one Partner country have launched contract negotiations for the purchase of Boeing C-17 transport aircraft
Under a three-year, renewable contract, two Antonov An-124-100 are on full-time charter, two more on six days notice and another two on nine days notice. The countries have committed to using the aircraft for a minimum of 2000 flying hours per year.
A single Antonov An-124-100 can carry up to 120 tons of cargo. NATO has used Antonovs in the past to transport troops to and from Afghanistan, deliver aid to the victims of the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and airlift African Union peacekeepers in and out of Darfur.
During their annual spring meeting in Brussels in June 2003, NATO Ministers of Defence signed letters of intent on strategic air- and sealift. Eleven nations signed the letter of intent on airlift: Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Turkey. At the 28-29 June 2004 Istanbul Summit, Defence Ministers of 15 countries signed a memorandum of understanding to achieve an operational airlift capacity for outsize cargo by 2005 using up to six Antonov An-124-100 transport aircraft. In addition, the Defence Ministers of Bulgaria and Romania signed a letter of intent to join the consortium.
More...Strategic airlift co-ordination will be done by the Strategic Air Lift Co-ordination Centre, and will be co-located with the European Airlift Centre (EAC), which already coordinates air transport and air-to-air re-fuelling between member nations. The EAC was established at the Royal Netherlands Air Force base in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in February 2002, the original members being those nations that were members of the European Air Group; Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Norway joined the EAC as an associate participant in 2004.
