Postmodern Combat Airlift

The Air Force's aging and overworked intratheater airlift fleet has relatively low density compared to the combatant commander's demand for the capability. Current employment in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have also highlighted the requirement to move small amounts of cargo and personnel through small austere airfields, suggesting a possible capability gap. Air Force policymakers face the problem of recapitalizing the airlift fleet to meet its intratheater responsibilities, not a completely new predicament for the airlift community. A similar situation developed in the wake of the Vietnam War. This study proposes that strategic considerations, political constraints and costs, technology, and service requirements constitute an analytical framework for deriving the knowledge needed for designing the intratheater component of airlift strategy. These elements are used to deduce the implications for intratheater airlift from General Howell Estes' "modern combat airlift" strategy, the airlift experience in Vietnam, and the technology of the Advanced Medium STOL Transport and the C17. This analysis serves as a frame of reference for assessing contextual similarities and differences compared to today, thus providing a point of departure for designing the next airlift strategy, one that will guide the plan for equipping our force to meet tomorrow's demands for airlift.