Polar Routes to Afghanistan?

[GZR_Sactargets]

From AF Daily Report 10 Dec 09

**Always tricky dealing with other countries for overflight rights. Remember the Berlin Airlift and the use of Manas Air Base?

Polar Route: One option being explored by US Transportation Command as it prepares to move an additional 30,000 troops and their equipment into Afghanistan by mid-2010 is the use of air routes that stretch directly there from the US over the North Pole, Russia, and the Central Asian republics, says Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, TRANSCOM boss. "I think there might be some really nice opportunities once we get that whole thing sorted out," he told defense reporters Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Such access would allow modern commercial freighters and military C-17s to fly nonstop from places like Alaska, Chicago, Charleston AFB, S.C., or Travis AFB, Calif., into places like Bagram Air Field, he said. In addition to carrying troops in, aircraft could also bring wounded soldiers in some cases back to the US without the need to stop in Germany, he noted. For more, read Land-locked, Interesting Neighbors.

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Featur ... tions.aspx

[jetmax]

I have been here at Bagram since July and I don't think it's going to do much good. First, there are only 3 usuable runways for heavies in this country. Second, there is only so many parking spaces at those 3 runways and third, there is no where to put these 30,000 extra troops just yet. I am glad I am leaving next month. Space wise, it is going to get ugly.

[GZR_Sactargets]

From AF Daily Report 11 Dec 09

Wishful Thinking: New KC-X tanker aircraft in the Air Force's inventory today would make the enormous task of surging more US troops into Afghanistan by mid 2010 and then sustaining the entire force there easier, says USAF Gen. Duncan McNabb, US Transportation Command head. The KC-X, as the Air Force envisions it, would be "a very efficient cargo and passenger carrier" in the war zone, in addition to its primary aerial refueling tasks, due to its "floors, doors, and defensive systems," McNabb told defense reporters Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Instead of having to fly commercial aircraft, which lack defensive systems, into outlying places like Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, and then transloading their passengers and palletized cargo onto military transports for delivery into Afghanistan, KC-X aircraft could move them directly there, thereby preserving C-17 transports for moving "rolling stock" military equipment, he said. (For more from McNabb, read Polar Route.)