Mobilization and Defense Management Technical Reports Series. Contemporary Issues Affecting the Ability of Commercial Air Cargo Carriers to Support the Civil Air Reserve Fleet

摘要

Our national defense strategy of deterrence relies upon our ability to rapidly deploy forces. For this strategy to be credible, the Department of Defense (DOD) must rely upon commercial air carriers for significant airlift capability. This study reviews the impact of events acting upon the domestic airline industry and the reaction of commercial air cargo carriers to those events. It reviews generic forces such as fuel prices, environmental regulation, and airline deregulation as well as trends specific to the air cargo sector such as the shift in the types of air cargo shipped and the growth in aircraft lower deck capacity. The impact of these events are interpreted relative to the possible and probable impact they will have on the ability of the commercial air cargo carriers to support the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program through 1990. The study reviews the actions taken to date by DOD to increase the domestic air cargo fleet through the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) Enhancement program, and new approaches available in the future. Finally it reviews the capability of the only wide-body aircraft presently on order by domestic airlines, the Boeing B-767, to provide strategic airlift augmentation. (Author)