The first of eight C-17 Globemaster III cargo carriers scheduled to arrive at Hawai'i's Hickam Air Force Base on Feb. 8 won't be sitting around for long.

"Training-wise, as soon as the first aircraft gets here, we're going to start flying it," said Capt. Steve Snelson, a C-17 pilot who helped create the new Air Force unit.

The unique partnership with the Hawai'i Air National Guard brings a new capability to the Pacific, ushered in $190 million in construction projects at Hickam and will lead to the creation of an $18 million combat-landing training strip at Kona International Airport at Keahole.

The first $200 million aircraft will be followed by the remaining jets arriving once every three weeks thereafter.

Air and maintenance crews, even the fire department, will be given access to the aircraft initially for familiarization.

"As new aircraft get here, we'll be flying operational missions as well as training missions almost daily," Snelson said.

Those missions are likely to include Iraq and Afghanistan for one of the most sought-after and capable military transports in the Air Force.

"More than likely, we'll have one or two jets staying here on base to fulfill the state mission, as well as local training," Snelson said. "And we'll try to have at least four jets out and about around the world flying the federal mission."

There are no specific orders for Iraq and Afghanistan duty, Snelson said, "but the inference would be, if we're committing at least four tails (aircraft) to flying those worldwide missions, that's where the majority of the work is going to be."

The C-17 arrival is groundbreaking in several ways. It's the first time C-17s will be stationed outside the Mainland; the first partnership with an Air National Guard unit to fly and maintain aircraft; and is a shift at Hickam from a maintenance and mid-Pacific refueling hub to an airlift wing.

Part of the rationale for bringing the four-engine jets to Hawai'i was the capability to rapidly transport 20-ton armored Stryker vehicles the Army will base on O'ahu.

The first of about 300 Strykers is expected to arrive in May. Each C-17 can transport three to four of the eight-wheeled vehicles.

"We can pretty much guarantee we'll be busy," Snelson said.

With a payload of 160,000 pounds, the C-17 can take off from a 7,600-foot airfield, fly 2,400 nautical miles and land on a small, austere airfield in 3,000 feet or less, according to its maker, Boeing.

Boeing said the cargo carriers have set 33 world records — more than any other airlifter in history — including payload to altitude, time to climb and short takeoff and landing.

Regular training will take C-17s to Grant County International Airport at Moses Lake in Washington state for steep combat landing and takeoff practice until an $18 million facility is built at Kona International on the Big Island.

The Air Force plans to construct a 4,250-foot-long by 90-foot-wide "short austere airfield" makai of the existing runway primarily for landings. The Marine Corps base at Kane'ohe Bay and Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kaua'i also were considered.

Hickam was not considered for the training landings because runways are shared with Honolulu International Airport and would have to be closed to be reinforced to handle the C-17s and the constant heavy impact, officials had said.

Most takeoffs at Kona would be from the adjacent runway, and approximately 360 landings per month would be conducted.

No money has been appropriated for the runway, and officials are looking at fiscal 2008 for funding.

In the meantime, Grant County — near McChord Air Force Base, south of Tacoma — is the closest alternative.

Snelson said the minimum requirement for C-17 pilots is one daytime and one nighttime combat landing per quarter.

"The advantage of having a local field is you have proficiency rather than just currency," Snelson said. "It really is a mindset of having that confidence of going to land at a dirt runway in Afghanistan and you've seen a short, narrow runway sometime recently."

Combat landing training will be incorporated as much as possible into scheduled Mainland flights, and Hawai'i Air Guard pilots re-trained from C-130 propeller aircraft to fly C-17s have performed combat landings in training at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

Crews also will replicate the landings and takeoffs in a $30 million flight simulator that's part of $190 million in construction projects at Hickam for C-17 operations and maintenance.

Air Force 1st Lt. Craig Savage said the 535th Airlift Squadron will have 50 active duty pilots, 37 loadmasters and four support personnel, and the Hawai'i Air National Guard's 204th Airlift Squadron will have 44 pilots, 38 loadmasters and 14 personnel from the 154th Operations Group for C-17 operations.

Col. Bill Changose, the 15th Airlift Wing commander at Hickam, and Brig. Gen. Peter S. Pawling, commander of the 154th Wing of the Hawai'i Air National Guard, will pilot the first C-17 into Hawai'i.

Hawai'i National Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony said the Air Guard and active-duty Air Force have been working side by side on the C-17 partnership "literally every step of the way."

"The Air National Guard and active duty (Air Force) have been involved in everything, down to the procurement of equipment, even to wrenches that will be used to work on the aircraft," Anthony said. "It's been working pretty well."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.