Measuring Airlift Effectiveness in the New Millenium
Abstract
Since the birth of strategic airlift during World War II, the major measurements of airlift effectiveness have been based on tonnage delivered. As our nation's requirements expanded and airlift capabilities improved, these measurements evolved from tonnage per month, tonnage per day, ton-miles per month, ton-miles per day, million ton-miles (MTM), and finally settled on million ton-miles per day (MTM/d). While "getting there the fastest with the mostest" was a good paradigm for the Cold War, the international environment has greatly changed since the demise of the Soviet Union and we now need a paradigm based on getting the "right stuff" to the "right place, at the right time." In this paper, two case studies are studied to determine how and why the airlift community centered on tonnage delivered as the primary measurement of strategic airlift effectiveness. The premise is that the "Hump" operation during World War II and the Berlin crisis shortly after the war not only proved the efficacy of airlift, but also firmly seated the use of tonnage delivered as the primary metric through today. But as the Air Force is increasingly called upon to support national security objectives in the post-Cold War world, as the Air Force moves towards an expeditionary posture, and as airlift capabilities and requirements continue to expand, we need a better way to measure airlift effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative methodology than just tonnage delivered to evaluate airlift's effectiveness. This methodology uses a system-of-systems approach to compare airlift capabilities to actual scenario requirements and area where the current overall metric, MTM/d, is severely deficient. The flexibility of this new methodology provides the user with a way to evaluate airlift effectiveness for current situations, planned scenarios, and future airlift proposals.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA391631
Entities
People
- Adam J. Mcmillan
Organizations
- Air University