The Command Moves Toward the Airlift Cargo-Carrying Goal
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The command moves toward the airlift cargo-carrying goal. - BY JAMES R COYNE, SENIOR EDITOR IN A fiscally constrained world. sixty-six is Military A big part of MAC's shortfall in Airlift Command's magic number. strategic airlift will That is the goal-66.000.000 ton-miles per day ( MTM/ be made up when D) of cargo airlifted to support US forces in combat— the C-17, still in established in a Congressionally Mandated Mobility development, Study (CMMS) carried out by DoE) in 1981. "We can comes into the force in the 1990s. attain that goal," said Gen. Thomas M. Ryan, Jr., MAC Commander in Chief. shortly before his October 1 re- tirement. "With capability improvements in recent years and enhancements like the C-5B and future pro- curement of the C-17, we will attain it before the end of the century." In any conflict, the bulk of supplies for US forces will travel by ship. but important equipment needed to sup- port them in the early days of the fighting can only be provided by air. As the conflict continues, troop replace- ments and certain materiel will continue to go into the battle area on aircraft. The CMMS produced the sixty- six MTM/D requirement after examining possible sce- -narios that included Soviet invasions of Iran or Saudi AIR FORCE Magazine / November 1985 53 Arabia, a Warsaw Pact attack on NATO, and a combina- tion of a conflict in Southwest Asia followed by a War- saw Pact attack. The airlift requirement is a fiscally attainable goal. By 1986, the study predicted, MAC would have a shortfall of twenty MTM/D; today, there is a shortfall of about thirty MTM/D. But this shortfall is down from 1984, when it was 33.6 MTM/D, and from 1983, when it Army troops board was 37.3 MTM/D. It will continue to drop as C-5Bs and a C-130 during Ex- C-17s come into the inventory, General Ryan said. ercise Team Spirit The sixty-six MTM/D goal is for intertheater airlift, in Korea. They had flown from the also called long-range or strategic airlift, between the United States US and overseas theater locations. In addition, MAC aboard strategic has the mission of providing intratheater airlift within a airlift aircraft into theater of operations. The requirements for this mission a main operating are not clear-cut. The Army, with its new AirLand Battle base, where they transferred to doctrine, will need more airlift than ever before to sup- C-130s for the leg port its new lightweight infantry divisions in combat. into a forward air- More troops will move more often in a war, and more field in the equipment will have to be airlifted to support them than - battle" area. before. Right now, the Department of Defense is finishing the Worldwide Intratheater Mobility Study to determine airlift and other mobility needs in typical combat the- aters. Results are not yet known. Previous studies indi- cate, however, that fully two-thirds of what is airlifted into a theater must be forwarded to specific battle areas by airlift. MAC can currently haul nearly 9,000 tons per day in C-130s. The new intratheater goal established by the study will probably be well above that, perhaps as high as 16,000 tons per day. A growing portion of this will be outsize cargo the C-130s can't carry. Army's main battle tank, the MI Abrams, and larger The MAC Delivery Trucks equipment. Still the world's largest operational aircraft MAC provides airlift with its own aircraft as well as (the new Soviet An-124 is not yet in the active force), the those possessed by the Air National Guard, the Air C-5's "drive-through" cargo hold and truckbed-height Force Reserve, and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF). floor permit rapid loading and unloading of rolling stock CRAF was formed in 1951 when several civil air carriers and up to thirty-six cargo pallets. It has an in-flight agreed to provide specified numbers of aircraft to the refueling capability. government in times of crisis or national emergency. Workhorse of the force is the C-141 StarLifter. With Participating airlines today include Northwest, Pan in-flight refueling to give it a worldwide range, it can also American, United, American, Trans World, Flying Ti- carry thirty-five tons of oversize (but not outsize) cargo ger, Transamerica, World, American Air, Arrow, and more than 2,900 miles without refueling. It can accom- Continental. In a full-scale national emergency, these modate 200 fully equipped troops or thirteen cargo pal- airlines and others would provide about 300 long-range lets, or it can air-drop thirty-five tons of cargo or 155 overwater commercial airliners for military airlift. Air- troops. In an aeromedical role, the C-141 can fly 103 craft include the Boeing 747, McDonnell Douglas patients on stretchers with an appropriate number of DC-10, Lockheed L-1011, Douglas DC-8, and Boeing medical attendants from overseas to US hospitals. 707. Over the years, the civilian airlines have provided The C-130, after more than thirty years in the invento- CRAF aircraft during many crisis situations. The gov- ry, is still the mainstay of the intratheater airlift force. ernment has never had to invoke the agreement and call With its truckbed-height floor, it can be loaded and them up involuntarily. CRAF aircraft constitute up to unloaded rapidly and can carry up to six cargo pallets forty percent of MAC's intertheater airlift capability from feeder fields to forward bases in combat zones. during times of crisis. The C-130 can air-drop sixty-four fully equipped troops MAC's own resources include seventy C-5As, 234 or up to seventeen tons of supplies. It can also deliver C-141Bs, and 216 C-130s. More than 300 additional cargo on the surface, without landing, using the Low- C- 1 30s are available from the Air National Guard and Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES). Seven- the Air Force Reserve. C-5s are just starting to enter the ty-four litter patients can be carried on medevac mis- reserve forces inventory. Varying numbers of SAC sions. KC-10s are available to transport cargo in the MAC MAC also has MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft for the airlift system. Special Operations Forces (SOF). With special naviga- The queen of the intertheater force is the C-5 Galaxy. tion and other equipment, Combat Talon aircraft put Designed to lift more than 130 tons of cargo, it is the only SOF teams into unmarked drop zones in enemy territo- US aircraft than can carry outsize cargo—including the ry at night and in adverse weather. AC-130 gunships, 54 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 1985 dar, it can land troops in hostile territory and reinforce and resupply SOF units. Operating in total darkness, at low altitude, and with no outside references, it can ex- tract troops with minimum risk of detection. Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service teams com- bine helicopters, HC-130s, and attack aircraft for rescue efforts in hostile areas. The HC-130 provides airborne command and control and can refuel the helicopters. Teams like these also operate in peacetime rescue mis- sions, but without attack aircraft support. MAC forces have participated in the rescue of more than 21,500 people worldwide since the establishment of the Air Rescue Service in 1946. Airlift Enhancements Regardless of the wide variety of MAC aircraft and the diversity of their missions, General Ryan says, "Our primary missions are deployment, employment, and re- supply. Everything we are doing now enhances our abili- ty to carry out these missions." At center stage in this enhancement process is the program for strengthening C-5A wings. The center, in- ner, and outer wing boxes—the lengthwise sections be- tween the leading and trailing edges—are being re- placed, providing an additional 30,000 flying hours for each aircraft at a cost of $19.6 million per aircraft. Since the new C-5Bs coming on board will also have the new wing, MAC will eventually have a total of 127 C-5s with a 30,000-flying-hour life expectancy. In the intratheater fleet, the outer wing boxes of C-130s are being replaced to increase each aircraft's flying life from 18,000 hours to with a variety of machine guns, cannon, and other com- bat equipment, provide close air support, armed recon- naissance, and interdiction. Gunships were the principal fire support for Army troops on the ground during the Grenada rescue operation in the Caribbean. MAC provides emergency and scheduled aeromedical airlift with the C-9 Nightingale. The CT-39, leased C-21s (Learjets), and C-12s are used to provide expeditious A C-5 Galaxy, larg- airlift of aircraft parts and support people in wartime est operational situations. While doing this, these smaller aircraft offer aircraft in the low-cost seasoning of recent pilot school graduates. world, opens its vi- sor-type hinged They are sometimes used to provide executive transpor- nose to allow tation for high-ranking government officials from the loading of pallet- services, DoD, and Congress. And at Andrews AFB, ized cargo for a outside Washington, D. C., the 89th Military Airlift long-range de- Wing provides air transportation for the White House ployment. Loading is facilitated by and other executive agencies aboard several types of adjusting the aircraft, including the President's aircraft, Air Force height of the car- One. go floor, which is In the European theater of operations, the command normally at truck- operates a fleet of C-23 Sherpas, manufactured by Short bed level.