With last week’s senate passage of the 2010 defense budget, there are only two short rounds left in this match up between the Obama Administration C-17 challengers, and the Defenders of the large military airlifter. The next round, expected soon, will be the conference committee to reconcile the Senate and House versions. Then, the final round, President Obama’s signature.

It was an interesting scene last week in the Senate as Arizona conservative Republican Senator John McCain addressed the Senate, vehemently arguing in support of an Obama Administration avowed position—an Obama/McCain coalition of sorts. McCain tried twice to get his Senate colleagues to agree with him—and the Administration—and delete funding for 10 more of the planes the Administration does not want.

McCain’s efforts failed by wide bipartisan margins both times. His first attempt fell to a 64/34 vote, while last week’s vote against McCain was 68/30. After voting down McCain’s last attempt to kill C-17 production, the Senate voted 93/7 to approve the defense budget including funding for 10 C-17s. McCain, 5 other Republicans, and 1Democrat voted against the defense budget Thus, this round clearly goes to the C-17 Defenders.

The bill now moves to a conference committee for reconciliation with the House version. Unless there is some super secret behind-the-scenes lobbying on behalf of the White House, the final bill will probably include 10 more C-17s. The House version includes only 3, but the conferees are more likely to add to the House bill, then they are to reduce the order from the Senate version. And, no, McCain is not a member of the conference committee.

At the same time the Senate was giving more life to the C-17 production line, Boeing was delivering a third C-17 Globemaster III to the NATO Airlift Management Organization (NAMO) in support of NAMO's 12-nation Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) initiative. The delivery, which took place at Boeing's final assembly facility in Long Beach, completes SAC's first fleet of the advanced airlifters. Assigned to SAC's Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) at Pápa Air Base in western Hungary, SAC 03 will support International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations in Afghanistan as well as the airlift requirements of SAC member nations.

The additional U.S. Air Force C-17 orders will give Boeing some more time to round up international orders. Several other countries have expressed interest in buying more of the big planes, but Boeing has not yet announced closure on those contracts. Since Boeing turns out about 16 planes a year, the additional orders only extend the production line for a relatively short time—just about enough time to get them to the budget battle for 2011.