Airlines and Pentagon Discuss Using Commercial Transport Fleet
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
he nation's airlines have held initial discussions with the Pentagon about mobilizing a fleet of commercial and air cargo planes for use in the event of a war with Iraq, aviation officials said yesterday.
Such an action would mark only the second time in history that the military had mobilized the Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, a standby arrangement that lets the Pentagon call upon up to 925 aircraft and their crews during global conflicts. The fleet, established in 1951, was used during the Persian Gulf war to transport troops and equipment abroad.
The talks took place last week, said officials of the Air Mobility Command, based at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Maj. Gen. Roger A. Brady, director of operations for the command, spoke with officials of several of the two dozen airline and cargo carriers that take part in the air fleet, military officials said.
The primary purpose of the conversations, they said, was to ask carriers about their willingness to provide more charter planes for troop movements, short of a mobilization. No date for a mobilization has been set, aviation officials said.
Air carriers sign contracts pledging to take part in the fleet during military conflicts in return for Pentagon business during normal times. A war in Iraq would be likely to result in the most limited mobilization, which would involve 78 passenger and cargo jets and up to 2,000 crew members, military and airline officials said.
A mobilization would be a source of revenue for the airlines. During the gulf war, the Pentagon spent $1.5 billion on air fleet use. Commercial carriers provided 62 percent of the flights that carried troops and 27 percent of those carrying equipment, the Pentagon said.
Six major carriers — Delta, Northwest, American, Continental, United and US Airways — take part in the program, as well as five smaller passenger carriers and charter airlines. Cargo carriers include Federal Express, DHL International and U.P.S.
The fleet, which includes the industry's biggest aircraft, can be deployed in three stages. The first stage, the level reached in the gulf war, is intended for activation in a regional conflict.
Stage 2 applies in the case of a "major theater war." Some 292 aircraft, including medical evacuation planes flown by Delta and US Airways, would be deployed.
In Stage 3, declared in the event of the most extensive crisis, the airlines and cargo carriers would turn over 880 passenger and cargo planes and 45 medical evacuation craft.