Air Mobility Command is packing US military airlifters with excess war material on return flights to the US from Southwest Asia, in an effort to avoid a postwar logjam when coalition operations wind down. "We are saving time and money by using aircraft that are already positioned and would otherwise return empty," said Brian Trout, deputy plans chief with the 618th Air and Space Operations Center at Scott AFB, III. AMC is cooperating closely with US Central Command and US Transportation Command to identify "retrograde" equipment not assigned to any specific unit. CENTCOM and TRANSCOM then sort it for repatriation either by air or sealift.
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