The Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) system is an existing template if the Defense Department must move cargo through space. Even as U.S. airlift capability is furnished by military and commercial air carrier resources, spacelift capability will come from military and commercial space resources. This interdependence will be challenged to meet deployment, mobilization, and surge requirements. But if it can be pulled off, it will reduce costs and inefficiencies, create closer bonds with commercial space providers, increase agility, sustain the space industrial base, and enhance deterrence, which are all vital interests in an age of constricted funding but at the same time an age when the highest levels of government recognize the role of space in modern life. |