Towards Better Airlift Forward Operating Base Establishment and Control

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In OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), forward operating bases with airfields were essential to ground forces and to the Air Force. This is likely to be a common feature of future campaigns, and in OIF there were two important new developments in this area. The Global Assessment Teams (GATs) and the Regional Air Movement Control Center (RAMCC) contributed greatly to improving the Air Force’s Rapid Global Mobility decisive capability. The GATs were a new concept born of recognized shortcomings in OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF). In OIF, the GATs bridged the gap between seizure forces and airbase opening forces, thereby improving joint military operations and warfighting effectiveness. After these forward air bases were opened up during OIF, there were problems with exceeding their capacity and there were air safety concerns. For the first time a RAMCC was tasked with integrating and deconflicting military airlift schedules during major combat operations. The RAMCC also went on to integrate civilian operations as it had done for previous conflicts.