Military Airlift: DOD Needs to Take Steps to Manage Workload Distributed to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet

Abstract : To move passengers and cargo, DoD supplements its military aircraft with cargo and passenger aircraft from volunteer commercial carriers participating in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program. Participating carriers commit their aircraft to support a range of military operations in exchange for peacetime business. A House Armed Services Committee mandated GAO to report on matters related to the CRAF program. GAO assessed whether DoD did the following: (1) met its military airlift training requirements while also using CRAF participants to the maximum extent practicable, (2) provided justification for restricting commercial carriers from transporting partial plane loads of cargo over certain routes, and (3) has established future requirements for CRAF and how the planned size of CRAF compares to those requirements. GAO reviewed guidance and policies pertaining to the program, flying hour data, and DoD-sponsored CRAF study reports. GAO also interviewed DoD and industry officials. GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretary of the Air Force and the Commander, U.S. Transportation Command -- in conjunction with the Commander, Air Mobility Command -- to use its existing processes for monitoring training to determine when it can shift its distribution of peacetime airlift workload from military to commercial sources. In comments on a draft of this report, DoD concurred with GAO's recommendation and stated that it believes implementing the recommendation will further improve the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program.