Pentagon Orders US Airlines Provide 18 Planes to Help With Afghan Evacuation

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered 18 plane from U.S. airways be delivered to the Department of Defense to assist with the trouble to evacuate Americans and Afghan refugees from Afghanistan in keeping with a press launch final Sunday. The airplanes is not going to be despatched to Kabul, however as an alternative be used to ferry passengers to the U.S. as soon as they’ve reached bases within the Middle East by navy planes.

The 18 plane have been requested by means of a voluntary program referred to as the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, a partnership between the U.S. navy and U.S. civilian industrial airways that permits the Department of Defense to name up plane in emergency conditions.

Created within the Fifties, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program has solely been used twice earlier than, in keeping with the DoD press launch, together with within the lead as much as the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 1990-91 invasion of Iraq, referred to as Desert Storm.

The 18 plane have been requested from American Airlines (three planes), Delta (three planes), United (4 planes), Hawaiian Airlines (two planes), Atlas Air (three planes), and Omni Air (two planes).

“Under CRAF, the commercial carriers retain their Civil Status under FAA regulations while USTRANSCOM exercises mission control via its air component, Air Mobility Command,” the DoD stated whereas saying the transfer.

At least 17,000 individuals have been evacuated by the U.S. previously week following the withdrawal of coalition troops from the nation. The Taliban took management of all the nation, together with the capital metropolis of Kabul, with just about no resistance, however there have been violent skirmishes on the airport as individuals attempt to flee.

The U.S. navy is evacuating individuals in plane such because the C-17 to staging areas within the United Arab Emirates and Germany in a mission formally referred to as Operation Allies Refuge. The U.S. will briefly home the Afghan refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and Fort McCoy in rural Wisconsin.

Roughly 22,000 individuals have been flown out of Afghanistan since mid-July, in keeping with Defense One, when Operation Allies Refuge commenced. President Joe Biden has promised that each American and Afghan refugee who labored with the Americans might be evacuated to security, nevertheless it’s troublesome to see how that promise could be made with so many studies of individuals unable to get to the Kabul airport.

The Taliban has established checkpoints surrounding the airport in Kabul and whereas Taliban management have promised secure passage for individuals who wish to go away the nation, that’s not at all times taking place, in keeping with studies on the bottom.