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US has planes, boats on call for emergencies, why not satellites? – By Courtney Albon (Defense News) / Apr 11 2023
WASHINGTON — In August of 2021, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on major airlines to augment a military mission to transport evacuees out of Afghanistan following President Biden’s decision to withdraw combat forces from the region.
Leveraging contracts established through the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, the U.S. Department of Defense requested a total of 18 aircraft from six airlines to fly passengers from way stations outside of Kabul to staging bases, allowing the Pentagon to focus on the more dangerous task of evacuating Hamid Karzai International Airport. In the end, commercial airliners flew more than 420 flights to support the operation.
It was only the third time the military activated the program, dubbed the CRAF, since it was created more than 70 years ago to provide extra airlift capacity in times of crisis and conflict. It was first used from August 1990 to May 1991 in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and then again from February 2002 to June 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
