Strategic Airlift Capability Supported Exercise Saber Strike 2018

From 3 to 15 June, two C-17’s from the Heavy Airlift Wing, the operational unit of the Strategic Airlift Capability supported member nations Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and the USA, by conducting Joint Force Entries Air drop operations, delivering 1,300 Paratroopers, several platforms with heavy equipment. The SAC C-17’s also delivered supplies to ground troops by conducting a 40 bundle Container Delivery System (CDS) drop. Air land operations included delivering approximately 30 vehicles, and personnel.

Saber strike is a long standing U.S. Army Europe led cooperative training exercise that focuses on demonstrating NATO’s deterrence capability and collective defense, by employing NATO force structure mission command and increasing participating Nation’s readiness, interoperability, and freedom of movement.

Saber Strike 2018 contained 18,000 participants from 19 countries, Host nations were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Over 45 Tanks and other combat vehicles were deployed, alongside over 950 other support vehicles, and over 60 Helicopters.

About the Strategic Airlift Capability

Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC), established in 2008, is a multinational program that provides its 12 member nations with assured access to military airlift capability by owning and operating three Boeing C-17A Globemaster III long-range cargo aircraft.

SAC is based at the Hungarian Defense Forces (HDF) Pápa Air Base, Hungary.

The SAC Nations are the NATO members Hungary (program host nation), Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States and NATO Partnership for Peace nations Finland and Sweden. Each participating nation owns a share of the available flight hours of the SAC C-17As to serve the needs of their national defense, NATO, EU or UN commitments and humanitarian relief efforts.

SAC consists of the 12-nation Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) and the NATO Airlift Management Programme Office (NAM PO). The HAW is the operational unit and the NAM PO, an integral part of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), is the acquisition and sustainment authority of the SAC C-17A weapon system.

NAM PO contracts with the U.S. Government, via Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Agreements with the USAF, for SAC C-17 Technical and integrated Product Support, Flight Crew Training and operational data services. The USAF in turn sub-contracts many of these services to Industry; notably Boeing and Pratt & Whitney.