FOUR of the largest transport aircraft in the world could be based at RAF Brize Norton.

The west Oxfordshire base is the likely home of C-17 "Globemaster" rapid deployment military planes due to be added to the RAF's future armoury.

The acquistion of the massive Lockheed transporters formed part of the Strategic Defence Review announced this week by Government Defence Secretary George Robertson.

The aircraft, extensively used by the United States Air Force, has also been deployed by aid agencies like the Red Cross.

The RAF could utilise them for quick transport of both men and machinery, including heavy tanks and attack helicopters, to crisis theatres like Bosnia.

Mr Robertson said that four C-17s would be acquired to meet "a serious deficiency in our heavy lift capability".

He added: "It is likely that these will be based at RAF Brize Norton, but it is not expected that this will result in a significant increase in air transport movements." The RAF currently uses Hercules aircraft based at Lyneham in Wiltshire as its main transport facility.

Ministry of Defence spokesman Tim Wilkinson said that although it was one of the largest aircraft in the world, the C-17 "Globemaster" was powered by turbo prop and was not expected to generate complaints about additional noise round the base. He said: "I must add that at this stage, though, the decision to base them at Brize Norton has not been confirmed.

"These are white paper pro- posals."

Brize Norton is currently home to squadrons of VC10 and Tristars which play a key role in the transport of men and also the mid-air refuelling of fighter jets. C-17 Globemaster III fact file

Contractor: Boeing

Date deployed: June 1993

Cost per plane: $180m (£112.5m)

Length: 174ft

Wingspan: 169ft

Power: Four Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 turbofan engines (commercial version used on the Boeing 757)

Cruising speed: 560mph (Mach .74)

Service ceiling: 45,000ft at cruising speed

Maximum peacetime take-off weight: 585,000lb (265,352kg)

Minimum runway length required: 3,000ft (914m)

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.