Military Airlift The Joint Cargo Aircraft Program PDF Download

"The purpose of this research is to determine how the Air Force can fill the tactical intra-theater cargo airlift role for the Army, based on current airlift requirements and platforms. In 2004, the US Army and US Air Force both began pursuing a small, more capable, fixed-wing aircraft for intra-theater airlift operations. The C-27J Spartan was chosen to be the Joint solution with both Services scheduled to receive aircraft. In 2010, federal budget reductions removed the C-27J from the Army inventory, transferred the program over to the Air Force, and reduced the projected number of delivered aircraft from 78 to 38. This paper uses an exploratory case study to determine how the Air Force can fully support the Army's time-sensitive and mission-critical airlift requests using the C-27J aircraft. This paper discusses current intra-theater airlift assets and cargo movement systems in use by the Army and Air Force and examines the airlift requests and fulfillments from Army units over the course of a year. Then, using the hypothetical availability of Air Force C27Js during that time, it analyzes the Air Force's ability to support such requests. Through an improved prioritization method and changes to the theater airlift system, the Air Force will be able to support the Army's time-sensitive, mission-critical airlift with its C-27J Spartan aircraft."--Abstract.