Air Mobility Command

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Air Mobility Command
- AMC -

Air Mobility Command.svg


Air Mobility Command emblem
Lineup June 1, 1992
Country United States
Armed forces United States Armed Forces
General Command of the United States Air Force ( Major Command ) United States Air Force
Strength approx. 150,000 with reserve (2004)
Insinuation United States Department of Defense
Scott Air Force Base Illinois
motto Unrivaled Global Reach for America… Always!
( Unmatched global reach for America ... Always! )
commander
Commander AMC General
Maryanne Miller

The Air Mobility Command ( AMC ) is one of ten main commands of the United States Air Force (USAF) and part of the US Transportation Command . Its headquarters are at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois .

history

The organizational structure of the US Air Force has been rearranged and adapted several times since its inception, so that responsibility for strategic air transport has also changed several times.

The Ferrying Command was established in 1941 under the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) founded in 1926 - the forerunner of today's USAF . The USAAC was in 1942 in the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) over and took over the Ferrying Command . In the same year, its tasks were divided between the Troop Carrier Command (TCC) and the Air Transport Command (ATC) . During the military activities of the USA in World War II , the TCC operated in the respective combat area while the ATC was responsible for supplies from home. When the armed forces were reorganized after the end of the war, the Air Force first became part of the newly formed Ministry of Defense in 1947, which replaced the Ministry of War and the Navy. As a result, the ATC was merged with the Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) of the Navy and formed from it on June 1, 1948 the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) . The units of the Troop Carrier Command (TCC) continued to exist and were used as part of the Tactical Air Command (TAC) for the direct support of the combat force, while the MATS handled the rest of the air transport. Scarcely had it been founded than the MATS participated in the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49, even if the “ cherry bombers ” themselves came from the TCC . In the early 1950s, many air transports were carried out as part of the Korean War , mainly with the C-97 Stratofreighter and C-124 Globemaster . In addition, the C-118 Liftmaster , C-121 Constellation and later the first C-130 Hercules were used. With the jet-powered C-141 Starlifter , strategic air transport reached a new dimension from 1965.

On January 1, 1966, the MATS was incorporated into the new Military Airlift Command (MAC) , which has thus risen to become a main command of the USAF in accordance with its steadily growing importance. When the huge Lockheed C-5 Galaxy was put into service from 1970, it significantly increased the performance of the MAC , as soon became apparent in the Vietnam War . After its end, the air transport capacities of the Tactical Air Command were finally subordinated to the MAC , with the exception of the MC-130 for special operations. The 1983 invasion of Grenada was the MAC's first combat mission. Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as part of the Second Gulf War from 1990 onwards became the second largest military air transport operation after the Berlin Airlift .

With the end of the Cold War , the organization of the USAF, which was adapted to it, proved increasingly inefficient, so that a reorganization became necessary. The current Air Mobility Command (AMC) emerged from the MAC on June 1, 1992 . The KC-10 Extender and KC-135 Stratotanker tankers were taken over from the dissolved Strategic Air Command (SAC) . As a result, the Air Force's strategic air transport and in- flight refueling are now concentrated at the AMC . In June 1993, the introduction of the C-17 Globemaster III began to gradually replace the aged C-141 Starlifter as the new backbone. The last C-141 of the AMC was decommissioned on September 16, 2004. Since 2001 the AMC has been involved in the ongoing Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom operations. So far, 5.71 million soldiers and 2.50 million tons of cargo have been transported, over 27,000 refueling operations have been carried out and 761 prisoners have been brought to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba .

assignment

The AMC's mission is to transport material and troops by air in support of the entire US armed forces . This includes the relocation and supply of complete units in war missions (as in Operation Iraqi Freedom ) as well as air refueling and the flight out of wounded or prisoners.

Various aircraft are assigned to the AMC for the various purposes. These include various civilian types that have been converted for the transport of the President and other high-ranking personalities and that have been given a new type designation by the USAF:

At the end of 2004, the Air Mobility Command had around 150,000 personnel , including approximately 54,200 professional soldiers, 47,100 members of the Air Force Reserve , 39,700 members of the Air National Guard and 8,700 civilians. When mobilized in a crisis, the reservists account for 59% of the air transport and 54% of the AMC's tank capacity .

The callsign for most of the transport flights operated by the AMC is REACH .

fleet

A total of 1122 machines of the types C-5, C-17, C-130 / L-130, KC-10 and KC-135 are subordinate to the AMC (as of October 2014), of which 551 belong to active Air Force squadrons, 362 to units of the Air National Guards and 209 the Air Force Reserve Command .

Subordinate units

In October 2014, the following units were subordinate to the Air Mobility Command:

  1. Air Base Wings
  2. Air Mobility Wings
  3. Airlift Wings / Airlift Groups
  4. Tanker wings

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Factsheets: Air Mobility Command. United States Air Force, December 12, 2008, archived from the original on September 15, 2008 ; accessed on February 11, 2012 .
  2. ^ Ron Perron: Military Callsign List. Ominous Valve, January 16, 2003, accessed February 11, 2012 .
  3. ^ A b Bob Archer: USAF's Airlift Now and the Future . In: Air Forces Monthly . No. 10 . Key Publishing, October 2014, ISSN  0306-5634 , p. 66-75 .