Originally Posted by KYTBRD

An interesting paragraph from the June 2013 GAO report on Military Airlift:

"After the drawdown in Afghanistan concludes, the need for airlift is expected to decline, which will reduce both training opportunities and the business available for CRAF participants. In addition, as airlift needs decrease, DOD may need to fly a higher percentage of its channel missions in order to provide its crews with sufficient training opportunities, which could further decrease its use of CRAF participants. DOD officials told us that they expect peacetime business to fall significantly after fiscal year 2015. This decrease has already begun; peacetime revenues of CRAF participants have already dropped by nearly one third, from their high point of approximately $3 billion in fiscal year 2010 to about $2 billion in fiscal year 2012, as shown in figure 5. Commercial carriers are projected to be used even less in fiscal year 2013 and beyond, until revenues return to pre-September 11, 2001 levels of $700 million or less. This represents a potential 66 percent decline in DOD business available to CRAF participants, which may further exacerbate the economic pressures under which CRAF participants are operating."

An interesting read if you have the time on those long legs to ICN,NGO.....

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/655338.pdf