Integrating C-17 Direct Delivery Airlift into Traditional Air Force Doctrine

摘要

Airlift is critical to a national military strategy increasingly dependent on strategic mobility to deploy U.S. and multinational forces. Airlift doctrine, the very principles that describe how this airlift should be used, has remained relatively unchanged for the past thirty years. Consequently, the traditional 'hub and spoke' airlift process remains as the Air Force's fundamental airlift deployment strategy. Today, the C-17 is a next generation airlifter capable of direct delivery, but the Air Force's reluctance to integrate direct delivery within traditional airlift doctrine may be degrading the efficiency and effectiveness of our national airlift capability. Airlift will always be a scarce resource. Airlift doctrine needs to be updated to take advantage of the rapid force projection capability direct delivery airlift can provide. This paper discusses the evolution of the C-17 direct delivery airlift capability and highlights the need to integrate this capability within current Air Force doctrine. It begins with a discussion of the original doctrine that led to a vision that our nation needed a direct delivery capability. Then follows the evolution of direct delivery from the initial concept, to aircraft development, to the operational capability that exists today with the advent of the C-17. It concludes with a proposal of a direct delivery utility model that would be beneficial in determining when to employ direct delivery in an airlift operation.