AMC central to historic troop rotation

  • Published
  • By Cynthia Bauer
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) --  Department of Defense officials have challenged those from Air Mobility Command to play a central role in the Southwest Asia troop rotation by moving 250,000 people in 60 days. That roughly equates to the number of passengers who can sit in 720 wide-body commercial aircraft or the entire population of Louisville, Ky.

Defense officials have called the troop movement a historic feat and the largest troop movement since World War II. AMC’s job is to redeploy the forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring in new troops.

The rotation began Feb. 1. As of March 11, 90,000 servicemembers, primarily Soldiers and Marines, have moved into the theater, and 44,000 have returned home.

At the hub of airlift operations for the massive troop rotation is the 18th Air Force here, a new organization reactivated Oct. 1 as AMC's warfighting component. The commander of 18th Air Force, Lt. Gen. William Welser III, said the total-force job of moving the extraordinary number of people is going smoothly, based on lessons learned from past operations.

"One of the things I'm most proud of, and impressed by, is how we have learned from our lessons, not only from (operations) Desert Shield and Desert Storm, but also from Afghanistan and Iraq, and now as we go into the next phase of rotations, to improve our processes, tactics, techniques and procedures," said General Welser. "Here we are, a little more than 900 days since (the terrorist attacks of) 9-11. In those 900 days, we've learned a lot."

Some of those lessons include better scheduling, better integration of resources within the defense transportation system, and better accounting of cargo and people through improved and integrated information-technology systems.

"Our part is to sequence and schedule all of the air movement, which means, essentially, the Air Force has flexed its airlift and tanker fleet to a higher state of readiness and availability," said Brig. Gen. Paul Selva, commander of 18th Air Force’s tanker airlift control center here. "Our requirement is to move substantial numbers of primarily Soldiers and Marines through a relatively small infrastructure, two bases ... accepting 3,000 people a day inbound and 3,000 people a day outbound over a short period of time."

The Air Force airlift fleet is supporting the effort heavily, but that is not all.

"We have tapped our KC-10 [Extender] fleet and a portion of our KC-135 [Stratotanker] fleet to move passengers, which is not their characteristic air-refueling role," General Selva said.

Also, AMC's commercial-airlift partners have provided 40 aircraft almost every day.

"If you had come to the TACC and watched the air-transportation function prior to 9-11, you'd see an average of 200 to 225 aircraft a day moving in the system," said General Selva. "As we completed the combat operation in Afghanistan and started the rotation of forces into what appeared to be a steady state, the average had grown to almost 300 airplanes a day, with spikes to 350 not uncommon. In this rotation, it is not uncommon to see the total posted in the low 400s ... nearly double the activity level that existed here pre-9-11, around a 50 percent increase over what has become to be the new normal of about 300."

Part of the challenge is not only tracking the military aircraft but also the commercial-contract aircraft carrying 90 percent of the passenger load. Contract-troop carriers are designated with military mission numbers.

General Selva said he gets "more bang for the buck" for the number of airplanes through an aerial port by using commercial airplanes. A C-17 Globemaster III carries about 96 passengers, but a commercial wide-body passenger aircraft which occupies the same parking space can carry 285 to 350 people.

With commercial carriers taking on requirements for passenger travel and commercial sealift moving as much as 85 percent of the cargo, General Welser said military airlift is not stretched as thin, increasing the ability of the DOD to provide airlift into hostile territory and to respond to emerging international crises. (Courtesy of AMC News Service)