The Future of Heavy Airlift How Projects Like the WindRunner Are Redefining Strategic Air Mobility

Europe is once again thinking big — quite literally. With a high-level RADIA delegation visiting the European Air Transport Command (EATC) on 16 October 2025, the debate on future oversized and outsized airlift capabilities has gained new momentum.

Europe and the United States are entering a new era of heavy-lift innovation. With a high-level RADIA delegation visiting the European Air Transport Command (EATC) on 16 October 2025, the discussion around future oversized and outsized airlift capabilities took on a distinctly strategic tone.

The meeting in Eindhoven reflected a growing convergence between industry and military mobility planners — on both sides of the Atlantic — who see the next decade as decisive for the future of air logistics.The talks in Eindhoven marked the beginning of a structured exchange between industry and European air mobility planners — a development that could have far-reaching implications for NATO’s strategic lift architecture.

“The Skies Are About to Get a Lot More Impressive”

Unveiled earlier this year at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference in Maryland, RADIA’s WindRunner made already headlines across the defence world. The American firm describes it as a revolutionary rethink of 21st-century military logistics — an aircraft designed not just to carry weight, but to move entire operational systems anywhere on the globe.

Unlike Cold War-era giants such as the C-5 Galaxy or An-124 Ruslan, the WindRunner prioritizes volume over mass. Its payload capacity of roughly 72 tonnes is about half that of a C-5, but its cargo volume of 6,800 m³ is seven times greater than the Galaxy’s and twelve times that of a C-17.That space could theoretically accommodate twelve AH-64 Apaches, six CH-47 Chinooks, or four F-35Cs — fully assembled — in a single flight.

Engineering for Modern Warfare

The WindRunner is tailored for the new age of Agile Combat Employment (ACE) — the doctrine emphasizing dispersed, flexible operations from austere or damaged airfields. It can reportedly take off from runways as short as  1,800 m, a remarkable improvement over the C-5’s required 2,400 m at full load.
 This makes the aircraft a potential lifeline for rapid deployments across the Indo-Pacific, where extended Chinese anti-access networks threaten conventional logistics routes. A 2023 RAND report on logistics in contested environments underscored the urgency: “The ability to deliver oversized cargo rapidly and intact is a critical bottleneck in any future scenario involving peer competitors.”

Why Oversized and Outsized Airlift Matters Now

In military and logistics terminology, precision matters:– Oversized cargo refers to loads exceeding standard pallet dimensions but still transportable by existing heavy-lift aircraft such as the C-17 or A400M.– Outsized cargo describes items so large or irregularly shaped that they cannot be loaded or handled through conventional means — entire rotor blades, missile launchers, modular reactors, or intact helicopter fuselages.
Across NATO and the EU, awareness is growing that the current airlift fleet is aging, and there is no direct successor for the world’s few outsized cargo aircraft — notably the destroyed An-225 Mriya and the dwindling An-124 fleet. This is precisely the gap RADIA aims to fill with its WindRunner concept.

Strategic Dialogue in Eindhoven – EATC and RADIA in Conversation

According EATC the October meeting covered several key themes:
- Operational Requirement Mapping:
EATC experts presented future load profiles and route projections, highlighting where outsized transport demand is likely to rise — particularly in system relocation and infrastructure deployment across the European theatre.
- Capability Gaps and Timelines:
As current fleets approach obsolescence by the mid-2030s, participants discussed how next-generation aircraft could be phased in to prevent a strategic lift shortfall.
- Role Definition:
According to RADIA’s Ken Bibb, Vice President Defence Business Development, the WindRunner is conceived as a strategic, long-range platform, complementing tactical airlifters rather than replacing them — a “global mover” for entire system modules.
- EATC’s Potential Role:
The Command could act as an advisory and coordination hub, aligning national requirements, defining standards, and pooling technical expertise for a collective capability roadmap.
- Technical Challenges:
Runway compatibility, modular loading systems, certification pathways, and interoperability standards remain key hurdles.
EATC emphasized host-nation infrastructure constraints, alliance interoperability, and cost structures as critical factors.

The meeting was officially described as “exploratory in nature”, but its undertone was unmistakable: Europe must plan now to avoid a future deficit in outsized airlift capacity.

The dialogue between EATC and RADIA signals that the discussion around outsized airlift is moving from vision to strategic planning.
Whether the WindRunner — or a future European counterpart — eventually takes the skies remains to be seen. What is certain is that the conversation is happening at the right time.
 The strategic question is no longer if such aircraft will be needed — but who will build them first, and under which flag they will fly.

Sources:
EATC Press Release, 16 Oct 2025 · Radia Aerospace