OREANDA-NEWS. Boeing [NYSE: BA] has delivered a training center for the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, enabling the base to cut costs by training pilots and loadmasters onsite.

“Since we received our first C-17 at Wright-Patt in January 2011, our local crews have had to go on temporary duty at other bases around the country to keep up their flying certifications,” said Michael Galle, U.S. Air Force C-17 program manager for training systems at the base. “Now that we have our own training center, we can increase training efficiency and reduce travel time and costs.”

The delivery is part of an initial USD 44 million contract awarded in December 2010 to deliver C-17 Weapon System Trainers (WSTs) to Wright-Patterson, McChord Air Force Base, Wash., and Stewart Air National Guard, N.Y. In December 2011, the Air Force exercised a USD 29 million option for additional C-17 WST deliveries for Air National Guard bases in Memphis, Tenn., and Martinsburg, W.V., scheduled for completion in 2014.

The Wright-Patterson facility includes a new and fully networked C-17 WST, a training management system, computer-based training devices, a core integrated processor task trainer and portable flight-planning devices. The new WST has the ability to be networked with other U.S. Air Force WST devices around the world for cross-team mission training.

Wright-Patterson is home base for nine C-17s, and the Air Force contracting office for the Boeing C-17 training program has been stationed at the base since the program’s inception in 1989.