Commercial Airlift Augmentation: An Organizational Study

The Defense Transportation System (DTS) relies heavily upon the commercial air transportation industry to meet transportation requirements beyond the Department of Defense's (DOD) organic airlift capability. The Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) is an integral part of the DTS that provides a strategic alliance between DOD and commercial air carriers. This alliance requires a deep level of commitment by the DOD and their commercial air carrier partners to make the contractual arrangements a success and to ensure the functionality of commercial airlift augmentation during times of national need. This research project explores the corporate structure involved in DOD's management of the commercial airlift augmentation program and outlines each organization's role and responsibilities. While making no overall recommendations regarding the management of the commercial airlift augmentation program, this paper provides a tool to increase the awareness of personnel involved in the mobility arena regarding DOD's use of commercial airlift during both wartime and peacetime and constructs a framework for logistics personnel to build upon for future airlift discussions. Particularly, this paper is geared toward military logistics professionals who need to better understand the integration of commercial airlift into the DTS.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Commercial Airlift Augmentation: An Organizational Study' with ISBN 9781423587217 and ISBN 1423587219.