Aircraft from six bases participated in a large-scale surge of the US Air Force’s C-5 Galaxy fleet on 17-21 October 2011. On average each day, about eighteen C-5 crews fly strategic airlift missions around the globe in support of combatant commander requirements. During the surge, eighteen active duty and twenty-three Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command crews and forty-one C-5A/B Galaxy and C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft were in the air every day. The surge tested the fleet’s capability to rapidly increase the capacity and throughput of strategic airlift in response to a large-scale crisis or contingency.
