MILITARY MILITARY AIRLIFT
T
he company polled 207
organisations worldwide and
half of the respondents came
from Europe. Of the others,
9% came from the Middle
East, 9% from the Asia-
Pacific region and both North
America and Africa provided
12%. South America and the
Caribbean only supplied 7% of
respondents. A third of the organisations answering
the questionnaire identified themselves as military,
a quarter as academics and analysts, 14% each as
industry or government, and 5% as media.
The first question was: “How satisfied are
you in the operational effectiveness of current
airlift capabilities?” The replies were interesting.
The proportion of survey respondents satisfied
with airlift’s current operational effectiveness
was 76%. While 39% of military respondents
were very satisfied with the tactical arena, they
expressed the most dissatisfaction with strategic
airlift. Just under a quarter (22%) said they were
not satisfied with either type of airlift. Interestingly,
when it came to the operational effectiveness of
tactical airlift, satisfaction levels among industry
were more than twice as high (39%) as the
military (16.6%).
The next question dealt with priorities in
investment in three critical categories: personnel
development, procedures and equipment.
Participants were asked to rate the importance
of these facets from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most
important. The survey found very little difference
between the respondent types, with all agreeing
that the three categories were of almost equal
importance, with equipment narrowly coming
out in front at 3.85%, ahead of personnel
development at 3.58% and procedures at 3.56%.
It is perhaps not surprising that all three rated
highly, because, of course, without one of these
aspects the rest cannot function.In anticipation of its upcoming conference,
Military Airlift 2017 IQPC commissioned a
survey of those involved in the sector. AIR
International had a look at the results
What does the
Future Hold
for Military
Airlift?
A C-17 Globemaster III showing the essence of airlift.
SSgt Brian Ferguson/US Air Force