NATO Strategic Airlift Capability
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An initiative of several NATO members and one partner country, Sweden, which signed Letters of Intention to pool together to purchase and operate several Boeing C-17 Globemaster III strategic aircraft. They are to be operated in a fashion similar NATO's AWACS aircraft.
The initial participants were: Bulgaria , the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and the United States. Later on Hungary, Norway and Sweden also signed the Letter of Intent. Other members such as Canada purchased their own C-17 instead of pooling them with other NATO countries.
An interim arrangement, the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) earmarks a number of Antonov An-124 aircraft permanently for any NATO mission which might occur, contracted from the Volga-Dnepr heavylift company.
