The Civil Reserve Air Fleet: A Vulnerable National Asset

Abstract

U.S. military war planning is based upon the use of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to augment organic air mobility assets when deploying and sustaining forces in a contingency. While the CRAF is a tremendous national asset, its resources are not suitable for operations into airfields vulnerable to surface-to-air missile threats or chemical, biological or radiological attack. If a major conventional war erupts and CRAF assets are restricted from operating into planned aerial ports of debarkation, (APODs) a combatant commander's planned force deployment flow will be affected and the deployment timeline will be extended. U.S. military strategic airlift assets will not be sufficient to adequately flow forces to the desired APODs after CRAF transload at an intermediate staging base. The impact will be significant and war plans will have to be reconsidered.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 13, 2006
Accession Number
ADA463332

Entities

People

  • David D. Banholzer

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Mobility Operations
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Cargo Aircraft
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Deployment
  • Mobility
  • Passenger Aircraft
  • Space Systems
  • Surface Transportation
  • United States
  • United States Transportation Command
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Strategic Security Studies