Civil Service

Written by Tom Marlowe

MLF 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 10 (November/December)

The U.S. military is one of the world’s largest movers of people and goods as warfighters and their equipment deploy into theater around the world. While the Department of Defense has many internal assets for shipping its people and gear from location to location, it depends heavily on commercial airplanes to assist with the task.

The U.S. commercial air fleet, operating under the auspices of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program, provides DoD with a ready capability and cost savings as it already transports people and goods around the world, Michael Spehar, a CRAF program specialist at U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), told Military Logistics Forum.

“We use the commercial carriers to do what they do best— and that’s to haul people and bulk cargo,” Spehar explained. “The organic military airlifters are primarily designed for oversized requirements. So the commercial carriers generally carry bulk cargo—basically the small package and stuff you can put on a single pallet. Anything larger than that tends to go on military airlifters.”

Thirty-four carriers operating about 1,007 aircraft voluntarily support the CRAF program, Spehar elaborated. Those carriers include all of the well-known air passenger and freight carriers as well as many smaller companies, who depend on the military as their largest client.

In exchange for receiving those voluntary support contracts, carriers agree to participate in CRAF when it is activated during wartime or emergency contingency operations. Since CRAF’s creation in 1951, official activation has occurred only twice, Spehar noted. The first time was during Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and the second was during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

During Operation Desert Storm, which ran from August 1990–May 1991, the U.S. military tasked commercial carriers with about 5,600 missions—only a small percentage of which were under mandatory activation orders, Spehar said. Most of the missions were flown by carriers who volunteered to support the contracts.

In 2003, activation began in February and ended in June in support of OIF. The activation involved 51 aircraft, all of which transported passengers.

“Throughout that time, before the war, during the invasion and since, the CRAF carriers have been flying on a voluntary basis through our long-range international contract in support of our wartime efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan every day,” Spehar remarked. “It’s safe to say we have a dozen commercial aircraft or more under charter to use today.”

So the CRAF carriers maintain a very high optempo in support of the military, providing the same sort of support now under voluntary contracts as they would under emergency activation, Spehar said.

PROJECTING CRAF NEEDS

The commercial carriers leverage their full complement of airplanes in support of CRAF, Spehar observed.

“In the long-range international segment, which most people consider our go-to-war capability, the aircraft must have the ability to fly 3,500 nautical miles and operate internationally. Generally speaking, that’s a larger aircraft. We are talking 767s, 747s, MD-11s, Airbuses—the cross-section of the airline industry,” he said.

DoD depends on mobility capability studies to regularly validate CRAF program requirements, Spehar said. Those same studies indicate how many organic military airlifters, such as C-17s or C-5s, are required.

Changes in required CRAF capabilities have occurred incrementally as they have been revalidated over the past several decades for long-term planning. For near-term planning, the USTRANSCOM Operations Directorate (J-3) works with Air Mobility Command and the services to forecast their needs in the next quarter or year.

“Our people in the J-3 community and people in the Air Mobility Command work with the customers in the field to determine what their annual requirements are as well as contingency requirements or special missions,” Sandy Halama, CRAF contracting specialist, told MLF. “As those come up, the customers work through the J-3 validators to make a determination as to whether or not the need is there and whether or not it is going to fly commercial or military.

“For our contingency requirements, they can look six months in advance and determine what units are going to rotate from where to where and anticipate in advance, but not more than six months out,” she added. In the use of CRAF, DoD also saves money, although how much is not really currently known, Spehar acknowledged.

The Government Accountability Office documented savings under CRAF in the 1990s, estimating the CRAF program saved the U.S. military about $50 billion in acquisition costs if it were to acquire a fleet of similar capability. In addition, the military saved $1 billion to $3 billion in annual operations costs through CRAF.

“So we assume that the costs savings would of course be higher accordingly today. That was done sometime in the past, and I don’t have any recent numbers—but I suspect it’s probably similar,” Spehar commented.

A study conducted after Desert Storm concluded the military saved more than $1 billion through the activation of CRAF, Spehar revealed. During that contingency period, the military spent about $2.35 billion on commercial airlift.

When officially activated, CRAF provides increasing capability in three stages. The military asks carriers for 73 airplanes in the first stage—43 passenger and 30 cargo aircraft. The second stage requires 246 aircraft—a mix of short-range and long-range passenger and cargo aircraft to support a major theater operation. The third stage, which is considered full mobilization, involves 1,077 aircraft.

FREIGHT CARRIERS

The same freight shippers that Americans use every day also ship supplies in support of the CRAF program. The wellknown names like United Parcel Service of America Inc. (UPS) and Federal Express Corp. (FedEx) fly airplanes in support of military operations in much the same way as they do for commercial operations.

“UPS has participated in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet for many years,” Mike Mangeot, a spokesman for UPS Airlines, told MLF. “As part of CRAF, UPS flies U.S. military cargo on special charter flights to destinations around the world. Given the military nature of those shipments, most of the flights are confidential. CRAF is important to the U.S. military because their need for lift is greater than the capacity of military cargo planes, and CRAF allows them to supplement their flying.”

UPS has a series of aircraft from its 747-400, MD-11 and 767 fleets that it makes available for military charters as required. UPS pilots who have specially volunteered for CRAF flights operate those charters. UPS specifically dedicates two 747-100Fs, three 747-200Fs, four 767-400Ers, and nine MD-10/11F-CFs monthly to international long-range cargo operations, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Intelligence, Security and Emergency Response.

In 2009, the government awarded UPS and its affiliates $189 million in international airlift services, according to USTRANSCOM.

“CRAF involvement is both good corporate citizenship and good business,” Mangeot said. “First, we are proud to support U.S. military operations. Second, it enhances government revenue opportunities for UPS beyond CRAF. Many government contracts for small-package and heavy air-freight shipping require carriers to be in the CRAF program before they can bid on the shipments.”

FedEx, the world’s largest express transportation company, has a fleet of 670 aircraft operating in more than 220 nations and territories, according to statistics cited by FedEx CEO Fred Smith during a congressional hearing in May.

But one of the chief benefits FedEx provides to the CRAF program is not through its impressive physical assets but through its administrative capability to handle flight teaming arrangements, Smith told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during a hearing on CRAF. FedEx heads a contractor team arrangement, where other carriers join the company in an industry agreement to handle CRAF demands.

“The team concept works well,” Smith stated. “Charter carriers traditionally have fewer aircraft than are needed by the military in case of a call-up. But during peacetime, their business model is focused and dependent upon military and commercial charter missions. The larger scheduled airlines find themselves in the opposite position. The mainline carriers have more aircraft to commit to be called up in times of war, but it can be difficult for them to take advantage of the peacetime flying because their aircraft are committed to scheduled routes. Consequently, the charter airlines benefit from the team because they receive more peacetime flying than they would otherwise be entitled based on the number of planes they commit to the CRAF program.”

Large carriers like FedEx offset their risk in dedicating their aircraft to support CRAF through commissions paid by charter members, Smith remarked. DoD benefits from this arrangement because the teams encourage more carriers and aircraft to participate in CRAF.

“Without teams, the larger mainline carriers would have less incentive to participate in the program and the DoD would have a shortage of aircraft committed to the program,” Smith concluded.

PASSENGER CARRIERS

Although the best-known freight carriers do not carry passengers, passenger carriers do occasionally carry freight. Take the case of Global Aviation Holdings Inc. of Peachtree, Ga. Global Aviation has two subsidiaries—World Airways and North American Airlines.

Lois Wilson, vice president of military sales for World Airways, estimated that military charters make up 80 percent of her company’s business. “World has participated in scheduling military airlift, which today is known as the Patriot Express, as well as ongoing contingency passenger and cargo missions all over the world for the military,” Wilson told MLF.

Annually, World Airways flies about 1,525 missions for the U.S. military, which roughly comes out to 127 missions a month, Wilson said. That keeps World Airways, which is based right outside of the Atlanta International Airport, pretty busy. World Airways joined CRAF in 1951 and has been a large supporter of the program ever since, participating during its two official activations for operations in the Middle East. As the company grew, it stationed crews all over the world, providing it with a global presence that benefits the military’s supply chain.

The goal at World Airways is to support the military by “flying smart” and doubling up missions as much as possible without jeopardizing safety or wasting money, Wilson noted. “It’s a combination of them trying to fly efficiently as well as ... World Airways flying in a way that makes sense,” she remarked.

The wide-body aircraft operated by World Airways generally can hold up to 353 passengers, enabling the company to deploy a unit of 1,000 warfighters with three planes instead of using multiple smaller aircraft. World Airways can reach into the Middle East with usually only one layover, which makes a flight a bit more customer-friendly as well.

World Airways operates DC-10 passenger aircraft and Boeing 747s. They also have 15 MD-11 aircraft for use with both passengers and cargo.

“Our fleet has varied a little bit over the last year,” Wilson said, adding that a new MD-11 had arrived at the company the day she spoke with MLF. “The size of our fleet flexes a little bit with lease agreements ... but we have ample supply to support the airlift agreements we have right now.”

Combined, World Airways and North American Airlines represent the largest transporter of U.S. troops, Wilson reported. There is not a lot of peacetime competition for moving troops.

Wilson also is proud of the support her company provides soldiers who go on military leave to return to the states. World Airways maintains a constant flow of servicemembers returning to the states for rest and relaxation and then provides the means for them to get back into the field when they are ready to go back.

World Airways takes these soldiers from Kuwait and into Atlanta or Dallas, Wilson said.

But regardless of the mission, World Airways has the flexibility to meet the needs of many military missions, she continued. “We work directly through buyers at Air Mobility Command, sometimes through electronic means—e-mail and a Website board where business is posted and you go through a bid process.”

CONGRESSIONAL INTEREST

As efficiently as CRAF works, it doesn’t just operate on autopilot. In May, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held its hearing on CRAF to investigate the economic viability of the program.

Among those testifying were Brian Bauer, president of Evergreen International Airlines Inc., located in McMinnville, Ore.

CRAF accounts for 90 percent of U.S. military troop deliveries and one-third of planned cargo movements, Bauer told Congress.

“This private sector commitment, involving billions of dollars in hardware, thousands of crewmembers and supporting personnel, and billions more dollars in life cycle costs is made available on call with no cost to the government until utilized,” Bauer stated. “This allows the Defense Department to avoid equipping, training and maintaining a huge fleet of passenger, cargo and aeromedical evacuation resources, which would largely be static and consume multibillion-dollar public sector appropriations that are sorely needed for other purposes.”

CRAF is an excellent example of a public-private partnership, Bauer testified, which has been tested in contingency operations and exercised daily through USTRANSCOM contract operations.

Evergreen itself manages the largest CRAF teaming agreement, he noted, involving roughly 50 percent of all CRAF aircraft.

Evergreen as a carrier operates a fleet of classic B-747 aircraft, Bauer revealed, although the company has been planning to upgrade to modern 747s to offer the capability to carry higher payloads at less cost, particularly less fuel cost. The plans have been stalled by the national economic recession, but Evergreen hopes to move forward with its upgrade plans in the near future.

Indeed, Bauer suggested it could be in the economic interests of the nation to provide CRAF carriers with loan guarantees or even stimulus funds to assist them in their mission to continue to provide quality service to the U.S. military. Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), among others, agreed that the CRAF carriers fulfilled an important need and that Congress should be open to ways in which they could help them out as they struggle with the downturn that has impacted the entire U.S. airline industry.

“Volatile fuel prices, shrinking credit markets, growing debt and pension obligations, and the impact of the current global recession on air travel have impacted the airline industry in many ways,” Petri said.

The U.S. passenger airline industry lost $4.3 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2008, and the demand for commercial passenger charter flights has fallen sharply, Petri noted. Because of those circumstances, lawmakers may want to keep a watchful eye on the sky to help out CRAF carriers should economic recovery prove slow. ♦

Back to Top