Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF)

For decades, U.S. airlines have provided passenger and cargo transport services to the military in peacetime and wartime. Edgar Gorrell, the first president of the Air Transport Association, presented the concept of voluntary civil airlift participation in wartime to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The modern partnership is known as the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), formalized through a series of presidential executive orders and memoranda of understanding, the first of which was signed December 15, 1951. Under the CRAF program, U.S. airlines commit to support Department of Defense (DoD) airlift needs when those needs exceed the military's own airlift capability. In emergencies, DoD can activate U.S. civil aircraft and crews on 24-48 hours notice.

The U.S. Transportation Command, with approval of the Secretary of Defense, is the activation authority for all three stages* of CRAF (see below). Each stage of activation is used strictly to provide the amount of civil augmentation airlift needed by DoD. Although the U.S. Air Mobility Command (AMC) controls the aircraft missions, the carriers continue to operate and maintain the aircraft with their own resources. When fully activated, CRAF is capable of providing over 90 percent of troop-carrying capability, over 40 percent of cargo-carrying capability, and 100 percent of aeromedical evacuation capability. This heavy reliance on the U.S. commercial airline industry is reflected in National Security Decision Directive 280 and Joint Staff war plans.

CRAF was fully activated for the first time on August 17, 1990, to support Gulf War operations. Between August 1990 and March 1991, CRAF carriers flew two-thirds of the passengers and one-fourth of the cargo to the Arabian Peninsula. In preparation for further military engagement in the Middle East, Air Force General John W. Handy re-activated Stage I of CRAF on February 8, 2003, ultimately employing 51 passenger aircraft from 11 commercial carriers** completing over 1,625 missions and airlifting 254,143 troops. During this same period, voluntary participation by 16 commercial carriers moved 11,050 short tons of cargo in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The call-up was deactivated on June 18, 2003.

As of January 1, 2007, 1,382 aircraft were committed to CRAF by 38 airlines. Considerations for CRAF participation include aircraft out-of-service time and costs, crew scheduling (especially with respect to pilot reservists), insurance, equipment conversion, and peacetime financial incentives.

*Stages: (I) Minor regional crises; (II) Major regional contingencies; (III) National mobilization
**American, ATA, Continental, Delta, Hawaiian, North American, Northwest, Omni, United, US Airways, World