140-525: The Kuwait Air Force ( Arabic : القوات الجوية الكويتية , romanized : al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Kuwaitiya ) is the air arm of the Armed Forces of Kuwait . The Air Force headquarters is located at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base , with the remaining forces stationed at Air Defense Brigades, Ali Al Salem Air Base and Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base . The Kuwait Air Force numbers approximately 2,500 officers and enlisted personnel. The Kuwait Air Force
280-630: A C-17 has been used to transport the President himself, using the Air Force One call sign while doing so. In 2015, as part of a missile-defense test at Wake Island , simulated medium-range ballistic missiles were launched from C-17s against THAAD missile defense systems and the USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) . In early 2020, palletized munitions–"Combat Expendable Platforms"– were tested from C-17s and C-130Js with results
420-400: A House of Representatives subcommittee on air and land forces a need to extend production to another 15 aircraft to increase the total to 205, and that C-17 production may continue to satisfy airlift requirements. The USAF finally decided to cap its C-17 fleet at 223 aircraft; the final delivery was on 12 September 2013. In 2010, Boeing reduced the production rate to 10 aircraft per year from
560-478: A US$ 80.7M contract to join the global 'virtual fleet' C-17 sustainment program; RAAF C-17s receive the same upgrades as the USAF's fleet. The RAAF took delivery of its first C-17 in a ceremony at Boeing's plant at Long Beach, California on 28 November 2006. Several days later the aircraft flew from Hickam Air Force Base , Hawaii to Defence Establishment Fairbairn , Canberra, arriving on 4 December 2006. The aircraft
700-555: A charge of under $ 100 million and cut 3,000 positions associated with the C-17 program, and also suggested that Airbus' lower cost A400M Atlas took international sales away from the C-17. The C-17 Globemaster III is a strategic transport aircraft, able to airlift cargo close to a battle area. The size and weight of U.S. mechanized firepower and equipment have grown in recent decades from increased air mobility requirements, particularly for large or heavy non-palletized outsize cargo . It has
840-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
980-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
1120-580: A deal worth an estimated $ 4.2 billion, The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Raytheon a $ 655.4 million, took the form of a firm-fixed-price, sole-source, foreign military sales contract to supply to the Kuwaiti military two PATRIOT fire units, plus associated spare parts. Delivery of the units is expected to take place by April 30, 2018, on June 23, 2016 Raytheon was awarded a $ 523 million fixed-price-incentive contract to modernize six Patriot fire units in Kuwait,
1260-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1400-482: A high of 16 per year, due to dwindling orders and to extend the production line's life while additional orders were sought. The workforce was reduced by about 1,100 through 2012, a second shift at the Long Beach plant was also eliminated. By April 2011, 230 production C-17s had been delivered, including 210 to the USAF. The C-17 prototype "T-1" was retired in 2012 after use as a testbed by the USAF. In January 2010,
1540-429: A higher probability to damage the aircraft). The thrust reversers can be used to move the aircraft backwards and reverse direction on narrow taxiways using a three- (or more) point turn . The plane is designed for 20 man-hours of maintenance per flight hour, and a 74% mission availability rate. The first production C-17 was delivered to Charleston Air Force Base , South Carolina, on 14 July 1993. The first C-17 unit,
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#17327731642711680-405: A length of 174 feet (53 m) and a wingspan of 169 feet 10 inches (51.77 m), and uses about 8% composite materials, mostly in secondary structure and control surfaces. The aircraft features an anhedral wing configuration, providing pitch and roll stability to the aircraft. The aircraft's stability is furthered by its T-tail design, raising the center of pressure even higher above
1820-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1960-485: A lower LCN, but the USAF classifies both in the same broad load classification group. When considering runway dimensions and load ratings, the C-17's worldwide runway advantage over the C-5 shrank from 6,400 to 911 airfields. The report also stated "current military doctrine that does not reflect the use of small, austere airfields", thus the C-17's short field capability was not considered. A January 1995 GAO report stated that
2100-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
2240-504: A new record for the type which was previously over 670 people during a 2013 typhoon evacuation from Tacloban , Philippines . Boeing marketed the C-17 to many European nations including Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The Royal Air Force (RAF) has established an aim of having interoperability and some weapons and capabilities commonality with the USAF. The 1998 Strategic Defence Review identified
2380-751: A requirement for a strategic airlifter. The Short-Term Strategic Airlift competition commenced in September of that year, but the tender was canceled in August 1999 with some bids identified by ministers as too expensive, including the Boeing/ BAe C-17 bid, and others unsuitable. The project continued, with the C-17 seen as the favorite. In the light of Airbus A400M delays, the UK Secretary of State for Defence , Geoff Hoon , announced in May 2000 that
2520-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
2660-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2800-581: A sealed center wing bay as a fuel tank. Boeing informally calls these aircraft the C-17 ER . The C-17's cruise speed is about 450 knots (830 km/h) (Mach 0.74). It is designed to airdrop 102 paratroopers and their equipment. According to Boeing the maximum unloaded range is 6,230 nautical miles (11,540 km). The C-17 is designed to operate from runways as short as 3,500 ft (1,067 m) and as narrow as 90 ft (27 m). The C-17 can also operate from unpaved, unimproved runways (although with
2940-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
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#17327731642713080-461: A sixth C-17 through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program; it was ordered in June 2012, and was delivered on 1 November 2012. In August 2014, Defence Minister David Johnston announced the intention to purchase one or two additional C-17s. On 3 October 2014, Johnston announced the government's approval to buy two C-17s at a total cost of US$ 770M ( A$ 1bn ). The United States Congress approved
3220-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
3360-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
3500-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
3640-487: Is 88 feet (27 m) long by 18 feet (5.5 m) wide by 12 feet 4 inches (3.76 m) high. The cargo floor has rollers for palletized cargo but it can be flipped to provide a flat floor suitable for vehicles and other rolling stock. Cargo is loaded through a large aft ramp that accommodates rolling stock , such as a 69-ton (63-metric ton) M1 Abrams main battle tank , other armored vehicles, trucks, and trailers, along with palletized cargo . Maximum payload of
3780-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
3920-695: Is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas . The C-17 carries forward the name of two previous piston-engined military cargo aircraft, the Douglas C-74 Globemaster and the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II . The C-17 is based upon the YC-15 , a smaller prototype airlifter designed during the 1970s. It
4060-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
4200-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
4340-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
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4480-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
4620-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
4760-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
4900-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
5040-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
5180-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
5320-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
5460-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
5600-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
5740-573: The 17th Airlift Squadron , became operationally ready on 17 January 1995. It has broken 22 records for oversized payloads. The C-17 was awarded U.S. aviation's most prestigious award, the Collier Trophy , in 1994. A Congressional report on operations in Kosovo and Operation Allied Force noted "One of the great success stories...was the performance of the Air Force's C-17A" It flew half of
Kuwait Air Force - Misplaced Pages Continue
5880-592: The 2015 Sousse attacks from Tunisia. On 13 September 2022, C-17 ZZ177 carried the body of Queen Elizabeth II from Edinburgh Airport to RAF Northolt in London. She had been lying in state at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) began investigating an acquisition of strategic transport aircraft in 2005. In late 2005, the then Minister for Defence Robert Hill stated that such aircraft were being considered due to
6020-765: The 512th Airlift Wing , at Dover Air Force Base , Delaware, supplementing the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. The Mississippi Air National Guard's 172 Airlift Group received their first of eight C-17s in 2006. In 2011, the New York Air National Guard 's 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart Air National Guard Base transitioned from the C-5 to the C-17. C-17s delivered military supplies during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq as well as humanitarian aid in
6160-599: The Australian-led military deployment to East Timor in 2006. In 2006, USAF C-17s flew 15 Canadian Leopard C2 tanks from Kyrgyzstan into Kandahar in support of NATO's Afghanistan mission. In 2013, five USAF C-17s supported French operations in Mali , operating with other nations' C-17s (RAF, NATO and RCAF deployed a single C-17 each). Flight crews have nicknamed the aircraft " the Moose ", because during ground refueling,
6300-772: The C-33 ), the Lockheed Martin C-5D , and the McDonnell Douglas C-17. The NDAA program was initiated after the C-17 program was temporarily capped at a 40-aircraft buy (in December 1993) pending further evaluation of C-17 cost and performance and an assessment of commercial airlift alternatives. In April 1994, the program remained over budget and did not meet weight, fuel burn, payload, and range specifications. It failed several key criteria during airworthiness evaluation tests. Problems were found with
6440-646: The German Air Force in leasing Antonovs and Ilyushins for many requirements, including deploying the Disaster Assistance Response Team to tsunami-stricken Sri Lanka in 2005; the Canadian Forces had relied entirely on leased An-124 Ruslan for a Canadian Army deployment to Haiti in 2003. A combination of leased Ruslans , Ilyushins and USAF C-17s was also used to move heavy equipment to Afghanistan. In 2002,
6580-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
6720-559: The YC-15 . Though both entrants exceeded specified requirements, the AMST competition was canceled before a winner was selected. The USAF started the C-X program in November 1979 to develop a larger AMST with longer range to augment its strategic airlift. By 1980, the USAF had a large fleet of aging C-141 Starlifter cargo aircraft. Compounding matters, increased strategic airlift capabilities
6860-534: The center of mass . Drag is also lowered, as the horizontal stabilizer is far removed from the vortices generated by the two wings of the aircraft. [1] The C-17 is powered by four Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 turbofan engines, which are based on the commercial Pratt & Whitney PW2040 used on the Boeing 757 . Each engine is rated at 40,400 lbf (180 kN) of thrust. The engine's thrust reversers direct engine exhaust air upwards and forward, reducing
7000-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
7140-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
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#17327731642717280-772: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Boeing C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas / Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
7420-485: The 1,900 km (1,200 mi) JASSM-XR was expected to deliver large inventories in 2024. On 15 August 2021, USAF C-17 02-1109 from the 62nd Airlift Wing and 446th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord departed Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul , Afghanistan , while crowds of people trying to escape the 2021 Taliban offensive ran alongside the aircraft. The C-17 lifted off with people holding on to
7560-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
7700-556: The 205 planned. However, on 12 June 2009, the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee added a further 17 C-17s. Debate arose over follow-on C-17 orders, the USAF requested line shutdown while Congress called for further production. In FY 2007, the USAF requested $ 1.6 billion (~$ 2.27 billion in 2023) in response to "excessive combat use" on the C-17 fleet. In 2008, USAF General Arthur Lichte , Commander of Air Mobility Command , indicated before
7840-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
7980-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
8120-552: The A400M may suffer further delays, the MoD announced in 2006 that it planned to acquire three more C-17s, for a total of eight, with delivery in 2009–2010. On 3 December 2007, the MoD announced a contract for a sixth C-17, which was received on 11 June 2008. On 18 December 2009, Boeing confirmed that the RAF had ordered a seventh C-17, which was delivered on 16 November 2010. The UK announced
8260-539: The C-17 flew its first Antarctic airdrop mission, delivering 70,000 pounds of supplies. Further air drops occurred during subsequent years. A C-17 accompanies the President of the United States on his visits to both domestic and foreign arrangements, consultations, and meetings. It is used to transport the Presidential Limousine , Marine One , and security detachments. On several occasions,
8400-490: The C-17 has not been given an official service name and designation (for example, C-130J referred to as Hercules C4 or C5), but is referred to simply as the C-17 or "C-17A Globemaster". Although it was to be a fallback for the A400M, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 21 July 2004 that they had elected to buy their four C-17s at the end of the lease, though the A400M appeared to be closer to production. The C-17 gives
8540-451: The C-17 is 170,900 pounds (77,500 kg; 85.5 short tons), and its maximum takeoff weight is 585,000 pounds (265,000 kg). With a payload of 160,000 pounds (73,000 kg) and an initial cruise altitude of 28,000 ft (8,500 m), the C-17 has an unrefueled range of about 2,400 nautical miles (4,400 kilometres) on the first 71 aircraft, and 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 kilometres) on all subsequent extended-range models that include
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#17327731642718680-566: The C-17 program in March 1997. By September 1995, most of the prior issues were reportedly resolved and the C-17 was meeting all performance and reliability targets. The first USAF squadron was declared operational in January 1995. In 1996, the DoD ordered another 80 aircraft for a total of 120. In 1997, McDonnell Douglas merged with domestic competitor Boeing. In April 1999, Boeing offered to cut
8820-484: The C-17 wing in October 1992 resulted in its failure at 128% of design limit load, below the 150% requirement. Both wings buckled rear to the front and failures occurred in stringers, spars, and ribs. Some $ 100 million was spent to redesign the wing structure; the wing failed at 145% during a second test in September 1993. A review of the test data, however, showed that the wing was not loaded correctly and did indeed meet
8960-457: The C-17's unit price if the USAF bought 60 more; in August 2002, the order was increased to 180 aircraft. In 2007, 190 C-17s were on order for the USAF. On 6 February 2009, Boeing was awarded a $ 2.95 billion contract for 15 additional C-17s, increasing the total USAF fleet to 205 and extending production from August 2009 to August 2010. On 6 April 2009, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that there would be no more C-17s ordered beyond
9100-483: The C-X contest. These were lengthening of C-141As into C-141Bs, ordering more C-5s, continued purchases of KC-10s , and expansion of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet . Limited budgets reduced program funding, requiring a delay of four years. During this time contracts were awarded for preliminary design work and for the completion of engine certification. In December 1985, a full-scale development contract
9240-456: The Canadian Forces Future Strategic Airlifter Project began to study alternatives, including long-term leasing arrangements. On 5 July 2006, the Canadian government issued a notice of intent to negotiate with Boeing to procure four airlifters for the Canadian Forces Air Command ( Royal Canadian Air Force after August 2011). On 1 February 2007, Canada awarded a contract for four C-17s with delivery beginning in August 2007. Like Australia, Canada
9380-432: The Defense Department spokesman said. Kuwait purchased 16 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters and 30 EC725 Caracal transport helicopters, 24 for the Air Force and 6 for the National Guard. The purchase is motivated by concerns about potential terrorist or foreign attacks. EC725 Caracal fleet will be used for combat search-and-rescue, naval operations, medical evacuation and military transportation and will be operated by
9520-438: The IAF reportedly finalized plans to buy six more C-17s in its five-year plan for 2017–2022. It provides strategic airlift, the ability to deploy special forces, and to operate in diverse terrain – from Himalayan air bases in North India at 13,000 ft (4,000 m) to Indian Ocean bases in South India. The C-17s are based at Hindon Air Force Station and are operated by No. 81 Squadron IAF Skylords . The first C-17
9660-428: The KAF decided it needed an aircraft with better serviceability; it had been using the Hunters and the Strikemasters in the interceptor and ground strike role, rather than the Lightnings. Finally in 1974 the Mirage F1 was selected as the new air defence fighter and a total of 27 Mirage F1CKs and seven Mirage F1BKs were ordered and delivered in two separate batches until 1983. The ground strike role would be filled in by
9800-406: The Kuwait Air Force and National Guard. On September 12, 2015, the Eurofighter consortium revealed that the Eurofighter Typhoon had been selected by Kuwait to update its fleet with 28 new fighter jets. In September 2016, it was also announced that the sale of up to 40 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet had been submitted to the US Congress for approval. A deal for 40 planes valued at $ 10.1 billion (USD)
9940-449: The Long Beach plant. Production of spare components was to continue until at least 2017. The C-17 is projected to be in service for several decades. In February 2014, Boeing was engaged in sales talks with "five or six" countries for the remaining 15 C-17s; thus Boeing decided to build ten aircraft without confirmed buyers in anticipation of future purchases. In May 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing expected to book
10080-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
10220-624: The Non-Developmental Airlift Aircraft program was established to procure a transport aircraft using commercial practices as a possible alternative or supplement to the C-17. Initial material solutions considered included: buy a modified Boeing 747-400 NDAA, restart the C-5 production line, extend the C-141 service life, and continue C-17 production. The field eventually narrowed to: the Boeing 747-400 (provisionally named
10360-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
10500-508: The RAF could not use them for para-drop, airdrop, rough field, low-level operations and air to air refueling. The first C-17 was delivered to the RAF at Boeing's Long Beach facility on 17 May 2001 and flown to RAF Brize Norton by a crew from No. 99 Squadron . The RAF's fourth C-17 was delivered on 24 August 2001. The RAF aircraft were some of the first to take advantage of the new center wing fuel tank found in Block 13 aircraft. In RAF service,
10640-447: The RAF strategic capabilities that it would not wish to lose, for example a maximum payload of 169,500 pounds (76,900 kg) compared to the A400M's 82,000 pounds (37,000 kg). The C-17's capabilities allow the RAF to use it as an airborne hospital for medical evacuation missions. Another C-17 was ordered in August 2006, and delivered on 22 February 2008. The four leased C-17s were to be purchased later in 2008. Due to fears that
10780-399: The RAF would lease four C-17s at an annual cost of £ 100 million from Boeing for an initial seven years with an optional two-year extension. The RAF had the option to buy or return the aircraft to Boeing. The UK committed to upgrading its C-17s in line with the USAF so that if they were returned, the USAF could adopt them. The lease agreement restricted the C-17's operational use, meaning that
10920-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
11060-524: The U.S. On 14 July 2009, Boeing delivered the first C-17 for the SAC program with the second and third C-17s delivered in September and October 2009. SAC members are Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the U.S. as of 2024. The SAC C-17s are based at Pápa Air Base , Hungary. The Heavy Airlift Wing is hosted by Hungary, which acts as
11200-478: The U.S. government to acquire a fifth C-17 due to an increased demand for humanitarian and disaster relief missions. The aircraft was delivered to the RAAF on 14 September 2011. On 23 September 2011, Australian Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare announced that the government was seeking information from the U.S. about the price and delivery schedule for a sixth Globemaster. In November 2011, Australia requested
11340-465: The UK would remain in place for a long time and 1964 was known for the arrival of the first Hawker Hunters . These would later be joined by more examples in 1969. Two de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou transports arrived in 1963. The transport capacity would later be improved by the acquisition of an ex-RAF Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy in 1969 and later, in 1971, by two Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules . In
11480-543: The USAF announced the end of Boeing's performance-based logistics contracts to maintain the type. On 19 June 2012, the USAF ordered its 224th and final C-17 to replace one that crashed in Alaska in July 2010. In September 2013, Boeing announced that C-17 production was starting to close down. In October 2014, the main wing spar of the 279th and last aircraft was completed; this C-17 was delivered in 2015, after which Boeing closed
11620-628: The USAF considered positive. In 2021, the Air Force Research Laboratory further developed the concept into tests of the Rapid Dragon system, which transforms the C-17 into a lethal cruise missile arsenal ship capable of mass launching 45 JASSM-ER with 500 kg warheads from a standoff distance of 925 km (575 mi). Anticipated improvements included support for JDAM-ER , mine laying, drone dispersal as well as improved standoff range when full production of
11760-464: The USAF originally planned to order 210 C-17s at a cost of $ 41.8 billion, and that the 120 aircraft on order were to cost $ 39.5 billion based on a 1992 estimate. In March 1994, the U.S. Army decided it did not need the 60,000 lb (27,000 kg) low-altitude parachute-extraction system delivery with the C-17 and that the C-130's 42,000 lb (19,000 kg) capability was sufficient. C-17 testing
11900-542: The USAF production run and are identical to American C-17s even in paint scheme, the only difference being the national markings , allowing deliveries to commence within nine months of commitment to the program. On 2 March 2006, the Australian government announced the purchase of three aircraft and one option with an entry into service date of 2006. In July 2006, Boeing was awarded a fixed price contract to deliver four C-17s for US$ 780M ( A$ 1bn ). Australia also signed
12040-689: The aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake , and the 2011 Sindh floods , delivering thousands of food rations, tons of medical and emergency supplies. On 26 March 2003, 15 USAF C-17s participated in the biggest combat airdrop since the United States invasion of Panama in December 1989: the night-time airdrop of 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade occurred over Bashur, Iraq. These airdrops were followed by C-17s ferrying M1 Abrams, M2 Bradleys, M113s and artillery. USAF C-17s have also assisted allies in their airlift needs, such as Canadian vehicles to Afghanistan in 2003 and Australian forces for
12180-461: The aftermath of various natural disasters, including the 2010 Haiti earthquake , the 2011 Sindh floods and the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake . In the 1970s, the U.S. Air Force began looking for a replacement for its Lockheed C-130 Hercules tactical cargo aircraft. The Advanced Medium STOL Transport (AMST) competition was held, with Boeing proposing the YC-14 , and McDonnell Douglas proposing
12320-450: The chances of foreign object damage by ingestion of runway debris, and providing enough reverse thrust to back up the aircraft while taxiing. The thrust reversers can also be used in flight at idle-reverse for added drag in maximum-rate descents. In vortex surfing tests performed by two C-17s, up to 10% fuel savings were reported. For cargo operations the C-17 requires a crew of three: pilot, copilot, and loadmaster. The cargo compartment
12460-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
12600-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
12740-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
12880-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
13020-490: The first C-17 performed its maiden flight . The C-17 formally entered USAF service on 17 January 1995. Boeing , which merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, continued to manufacture the C-17 for almost two decades. The final C-17 was completed at the Long Beach, California , plant and flown on 29 November 2015. The C-17 commonly performs tactical and strategic airlift missions, transporting troops and cargo throughout
13160-580: The first time at CFS Alert , the world's most northerly airport. Canadian Globemasters have been deployed in support of numerous missions worldwide, including Operation Hestia after the earthquake in Haiti, providing airlift as part of Operation Mobile and support to the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. After Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013, Canadian C-17s established an air bridge between
13300-658: The flag nation. The aircraft are crewed in similar fashion as the NATO E-3 AWACS aircraft. The C-17 flight crew are multi-national, but each mission is assigned to an individual member nation based on the SAC's annual flight hour share agreement. The NATO Airlift Management Programme Office (NAMPO) provides management and support for the Heavy Airlift Wing. NAMPO is a part of the NATO Support Agency (NSPA). In September 2014, Boeing stated that
13440-863: The fleet of transport aircraft had been impounded by Iraq After the Gulf War, the KAF underwent a reorganization, growing in quantity and quality: Lockheed Martin has received a $ 245 million contract from the U.S. Government for the Foreign Military Sale of 3 KC-130J tanker aircraft to Kuwait with an option for 3 more. The program will be managed by the U.S. Navy. The Kuwait Air Force's new KC-130Js will provide aerial refueling for its F/A-18 fleet and augment its current airlift fleet of three Lockheed Martin L-100s. Kuwait's KC-130Js also will perform air mobility, disaster relief and humanitarian missions throughout
13580-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
13720-665: The gap that the KAF had in training capacity. In 1988 the Air Force was named al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Kuwaitiya (Kuwait Air Force). The lead-in-fighter-trainer that was selected, the Shorts Tucano T.52, would only be delivered in 1995. They were earmarked for delivery in 1990 but due to the outbreak of the Gulf War, deliveries were postponed. The delay in Iraqi air attacks allowed the Kuwaiti planes to get airborne. Kuwaiti A-4 attacked Republican Guard divisions still moving toward Kuwait City. The initial Iraqi attack on al-Jaber closed
13860-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
14000-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
14140-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
14280-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
14420-513: The limited availability of strategic airlift aircraft from partner nations and air freight companies. The C-17 was considered to be favored over the A400M as it was a "proven aircraft" and in production. One major RAAF requirement was the ability to airlift the Army's M1 Abrams tanks; another requirement was immediate delivery. Though unstated, commonality with the USAF and the RAF was also considered advantageous. RAAF aircraft were ordered directly from
14560-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
14700-468: The meantime the fighter force was given a boost by the procurement of 14 English Electric Lightnings that were delivered in the late 1960s. Twelve BAC Strikemasters were delivered in 1969. Between 1968 and 1977 two Bell 206s operated in KAF service and from November 1969, eight Augusta Bell 205s were delivered, replacing the aging Whirlwinds. Only five years after the delivery of the Lightnings,
14840-481: The mission software, landing gear, and other areas. In May 1994, it was proposed to cut production to as few as 32 aircraft; these cuts were later rescinded. A July 1994 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that USAF and DoD studies from 1986 and 1991 stated the C-17 could use 6,400 more runways outside the U.S. than the C-5, but these studies had only considered runway dimensions, but not runway strength or load classification numbers (LCN). The C-5 has
14980-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
15120-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
15260-505: The order from 210 to 120 aircraft. The maiden flight of the C-17 took place on 15 September 1991 from the McDonnell Douglas's plant in Long Beach, California , about a year behind schedule. The first aircraft (T-1) and five more production models (P1-P5) participated in extensive flight testing and evaluation at Edwards Air Force Base . Two complete airframes were built for static and repeated load testing. A static test of
15400-412: The outside, and at least two died after falling from the aircraft. There were an unknown number possibly crushed and killed by the landing gear retracting, with human remains found in the landing-gear stowage. Also that day, C-17 01-0186 from the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Al Udeid Air Base transported 823 Afghan citizens from Hamid Karzai International Airport on a single flight, setting
15540-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
15680-603: The pressure relief vents make a sound like the call of a female moose in heat. Since 1999, C-17s have flown annually to Antarctica on Operation Deep Freeze in support of the US Antarctic Research Program , replacing the C-141s used in prior years. The initial flight was flown by the USAF 62nd Airlift Wing . The C-17s fly round trip between Christchurch Airport and McMurdo Station around October each year and take 5 hours to fly each way. In 2006,
15820-621: The purchase of its eighth C-17 in February 2012. The RAF showed interest in buying a ninth C-17 in November 2013. On 13 January 2013, the RAF deployed two C-17s from RAF Brize Norton to the French Évreux Air Base , transporting French armored vehicles to the Malian capital of Bamako during the French intervention in Mali . In June 2015, an RAF C-17 was used to medically evacuate four victims of
15960-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
16100-478: The requirement. The C-17 received the "Globemaster III" name in early 1993. In late 1993, the Department of Defense (DoD) gave the contractor two years to solve production issues and cost overruns or face the contract's termination after the delivery of the 40th aircraft. By accepting the 1993 terms, McDonnell Douglas incurred a loss of nearly US$ 1.5 billion on the program's development phase. In March 1994,
16240-413: The runways due to presence of air scattered mines. The returning Mirage F-1 and A-4 landed and were serviced on the perimeter fence road. Only when Iraqi troops were right next to the base did attack sorties stop. Coalition forces heavily bombed the two Kuwait air bases, reducing most of the facilities to rubble and destroying nearly all of the 50 hardened aircraft shelters. Coalition cluster bombs cratered
16380-543: The sale under the Foreign Military Sales program. Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed in April 2015 that two additional aircraft were to be ordered, with both delivered by 4 November 2015; these added to the six C-17s it had as of 2015 . The Canadian Armed Forces had a long-standing need for strategic airlift for military and humanitarian operations around the world. It had followed a pattern similar to
16520-696: The sale was approved by Congress in June 2010. On 23 June 2010, the IAF successfully test-landed a USAF C-17 at the Gaggal Airport, India to complete the IAF's C-17 trials. In February 2011, the IAF and Boeing agreed terms for the order of 10 C-17s with an option for six more; the US$ 4.1 billion order was approved by the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security on 6 June 2011. Deliveries began in June 2013 and were to continue to 2014. In 2012,
16660-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
16800-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
16940-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
17080-508: The strategic airlift missions in the operation, the type could use small airfields, easing operations; rapid turnaround times also led to efficient utilization. In 2006, eight C-17s were delivered to March Joint Air Reserve Base , California; controlled by the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), assigned to the 452nd Air Mobility Wing and subsequently assigned to AMC's 436th Airlift Wing and its AFRC "associate" unit,
17220-464: The taxiways and the Iraqis had run a ripper across the runways every 200 feet to make them unusable. In the immediate post-war air force staff was 1,000, with 34 combat aircraft and 12 armed helicopters. In two years staff numbered about 2,500, with 74 combat aircraft, including A-4 Skyhawks, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets, and 20 armed helicopters. Four batteries of I-Hawk medium-range SAMs and most of
17360-477: The three C-17s supporting SAC missions had achieved a readiness rate of nearly 94 percent over the last five years and supported over 1,000 missions. In June 2009, the Indian Air Force (IAF) selected the C-17 for its Very Heavy Lift Transport Aircraft requirement to replace several types of transport aircraft. In January 2010, India requested 10 C-17s through the U.S.'s Foreign Military Sales program,
17500-566: The total of 36 Douglas (T)A-4KU Skyhawks that were ordered in 1974 and delivered during 1977. In addition, 24 SNIAS SA-342K Gazelles were delivered during the mid-1970s and 4 were subsequently passed on to the Police Air Wing. Four L-100-30 Hercules transport aircraft were delivered in 1983, replacing the shorter L-100-20 version of which only one survived (the other crashed in France). Also in 1983, twelve Hawk T64s were ordered to fill
17640-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
17780-499: The two nations, deploying Canada's DART and delivering humanitarian supplies and equipment. In 2014, they supported Operation Reassurance and Operation Impact. At the 2006 Farnborough Airshow , a number of NATO member nations signed a letter of intent to jointly purchase and operate several C-17s within the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC). The purchase was for two C-17s, and a third was contributed by
17920-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
18060-452: The world. Kuwait's first KC-130J delivery is scheduled for late 2013, with deliveries completed in early 2014. Using only wing and external tanks. In September 2010, Kuwait requested to purchase one Boeing C-17 followed shortly with an order for one more. The U.S. approved the foreign sale of (PAC-3) missiles, 20 launching stations, four radar systems and control stations, personnel training and training equipment, and spare parts to Kuwait in
18200-689: The world; additional roles include medical evacuation and airdrop duties. The transport is in service with the USAF along with air arms of India , the United Kingdom , Australia , Canada , Qatar , the United Arab Emirates , Kuwait , and the Europe-based multilateral organization Heavy Airlift Wing . The type played a key logistical role during both Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, as well as in providing humanitarian aid in
18340-419: Was awarded, under Program Manager Bob Clepper. At this time, first flight was planned for 1990. The USAF had formed a requirement for 210 aircraft. Development problems and limited funding caused delays in the late 1980s. Criticisms were made of the developing aircraft and questions were raised about more cost-effective alternatives during this time. In April 1990, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney reduced
18480-527: Was chosen to build its proposal, then designated C-17 . Compared to the YC-15, the new aircraft differed in having swept wings, increased size, and more powerful engines. This would allow it to perform the work done by the C-141, and to fulfill some of the duties of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy , freeing the C-5 fleet for outsize cargo . Alternative proposals were pursued to fill airlift needs after
18620-531: Was designed to replace the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter , and also fulfill some of the duties of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy . Compared to the YC-15, the redesigned airlifter differed in being larger, having swept wings, and more powerful engines. Development was protracted by a series of design issues, causing the company to incur a loss of nearly US$ 1.5 billion on the program's development phase. On 15 September 1991, roughly one year behind schedule,
18760-564: Was formally accepted in a ceremony at Fairbairn shortly after arrival. The second aircraft was delivered to the RAAF on 11 May 2007 and the third was delivered on 18 December 2007. The fourth Australian C-17 was delivered on 19 January 2008. All the Australian C-17s are operated by No. 36 Squadron and are based at RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland. On 18 April 2011, Boeing announced that Australia had signed an agreement with
18900-759: Was founded in 1953 by Field Marshal Sheikh Abdullah Mubarak Al-Sabah when the Directorate of Public Security Force split from the Kuwaiti Army ; the new force was equipped with a number of Austers in different configurations and two de Havilland DH.104 Doves . The Kuwait Air Force was expanded concurrently with the course of the British intervention during Operation Vantage that deterred Iraq from annexing Kuwait as one of its provinces. The first aircraft to enter KAF service were four Whirlwind helicopters and six BAC/Hunting Jet Provost T.51s . This support from
19040-530: Was granted airframes originally slated for the USAF to accelerate delivery. The official Canadian designation is CC-177 Globemaster III . On 23 July 2007, the first Canadian C-17 made its initial flight. It was turned over to Canada on 8 August, and participated at the Abbotsford International Airshow on 11 August prior to arriving at its new home base at 8 Wing, CFB Trenton , Ontario on 12 August. Its first operational mission
19180-404: Was limited to this lower weight. Airflow issues prevented the C-17 from meeting airdrop requirements. A February 1997 GAO report revealed that a C-17 with a full payload could not land on 3,000 ft (914 m) wet runways; simulations suggested a distance of 5,000 ft (1,500 m) was required. The YC-15 was transferred to AMARC to be made flightworthy again for further flight tests for
19320-409: Was needed to fulfill its rapid-deployment airlift requirements. The USAF set mission requirements and released a request for proposals (RFP) for C-X in October 1980. McDonnell Douglas chose to develop a new aircraft based on the YC-15. Boeing bid an enlarged three-engine version of its AMST YC-14. Lockheed submitted both a C-5-based design and an enlarged C-141 design. On 28 August 1981, McDonnell Douglas
19460-1059: Was signed off in November 2016. It seems there is closed order for 28 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to Kuwait, with an option of up to 12 more. On 21 February 2018, the US State Department approved a possible sale to Kuwait of four King Air 350ER Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, which is a priority for the Kuwaiti Air Force to establish its first dedicated airborne ISR fleet in its expansion and modernization efforts. 42nd Transport Sqd Lockheed Martin KC-130J 42nd Transport Sqd Boeing C-17 Globemaster III 61st Training Sqd F/A-18 Hornet C/D Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
19600-421: Was to deliver disaster relief to Jamaica following Hurricane Dean that month. The last of the initial four aircraft was delivered in April 2008. On 19 December 2014, it was reported that Canada intended to purchase one more C-17. On 30 March 2015, Canada's fifth C-17 arrived at CFB Trenton. The aircraft are assigned to 429 Transport Squadron based at CFB Trenton. On 14 April 2010, a Canadian C-17 landed for
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