KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Due to the current force uplift in Afghanistan and the minimal amount of serviceable airfields, monitoring and synchronizing the airflow of cargo and personnel into these airfields is a critical task.

Central Command Deployment and Distribution Center’s U.S. National Airfield Authority members, Army Lt. Col. Dean A. Huard and Air Force Capt. Britnee McIntyre, participated in meetings with the NATO Shape and Allied Movement Control Center, the Airfield Flow Coordination Center at the Tanker Control Center, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, May 2010 to coordinate more efficient air flow into Afghanistan’s airfields.

On May 1st, CDDOC established the United States National Airflow Authority whose mission is to optimize the utilization of United States Forces Afghanistan airfields by gathering and prioritizing U.S. air requests for Bastion and Kandahar Airfields in order to improve slot time utilization and cancellation rates. International Security Assistance Force IJC developed the “Force Flow Uplift Plan” to increase the force flow capability and improve airfield efficiency.

According to Major General Jochen Both, German Air Force, “Flights at the Afghanistan airfields since Jan. 1 have indicated that improved airfield slot time coordination and management is not only possible, but is actually a necessary precondition for successful and timely force closure.” This new process has ensured that the surge in Afghanistan has proven effective and efficient as it adds an additional 30,000 coalition troops and their equipment.

Prior to the implementation of the new airflow process, there were many issues such as decreased efficiency of time slot utilization, no centralized prioritization, and an increase in Prior Permission Request cancellations. Customers of the U.S. NAA include the Tanker Control Center, Joint Sustainment Command – Afghanistan and the Theater Express Commercial carriers. The meeting was held to garner a better understanding of how TACC plans and executes their missions and to determine what information technology systems they utilize to plan air missions for the majority of the strategic airlift. Also, they discussed how to determine the best method to integrate their business model into the NATO system of planning air missions.

The opportunity to interact with coalition partners to include the UK, Canadians and Danish proved vital to the success of the mission. Follow-on meetings between NATO Shape, AMCC, AFCC, and CDDOC are scheduled to continue the relationships that were established at Scott AFB.

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