Stepchild's Dilemma

A key command of the U.S. Air Force last week began flying through its biggest peacetime maneuver to show that in wartime its men could perform well--even if its old machines might not. The command: the Military Air Transport Service, whose primary military assignment is to move soldiers and supplies to distant battlefields and trouble spots. Because MATS does not fire missiles or drop bombs, and because its main chore is to move and service ground forces, it has become a sort of stepchild, limps along on a small fraction of the Air Force's $18 billion budget.

To test its ability to go over to a war tempo, and to convince Congress that it needs modernization, MATS mounted a 14-day, $10.6 million "Operation Big Slam." Into Puerto Rico's sun-soaked Ramey Air Force Base and Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, from 14 fields as far off as Hickam in Honolulu (6,000 miles), some 250 MATS planes began lifting 20,530 troops and 11,150 tons of gear. Last week Ramey roared with a take-off or landing every 3 1/4 minutes (Berlin airlift average: one every three minutes). Up to 101 planes were in the air at a time, but not more than eight to ten transports rested on Ramey's tarmac because of the speed with which Army men (supervised by veteran MATS loadmasters) loaded and unloaded. In case of war, the MATS fleet would probably require two weeks to airlift one fully equipped division to a distant point.

Civil Sniping. No one is more acutely aware of MATS' problems than MATS' boss, Lieut. General William H. Tunner, 53, who commanded the historic airlifts over the Hump in World War II and to Berlin and Korea. Most of Tunner's 483 planes are obsolescent relics of the propeller age. The bulk of them--291 cargo-carrying C124 Globemasters and 163 troop-lifting C-118s and C121 Super Constellations-are seven to twelve years old, are so short-ranged that they rely on vulnerable island refueling stops on long hops. If Wake Island, Kwajalein and Eniwetok were atomized, MATS would be hard put to deliver as much as a can of Spam to Japan. The only long-legged, modern transport in Tunner's stable is the turboprop C-133 Cargomaster, of which MATS counts a mere 29, with another 20 on order.

What Bill Tunner wants is a fleet of swing-tailed jet aircraft that could lift fighting troops or 20 tons of freight nonstop over 4,000 miles. With a new type of big turboprop cargo plane that MATS wants to develop, Tunner says he could haul for 4-c- to 5-c- per ton-mile what now costs 23-c- on the C124 Globemasters. But MATS is in the sniping sights of the civil airlines, which last year got $85 million worth of business from MATS. (The total military business with the airlines last year, including movements of military people under travel orders, came to a handsome $235 million.) The lines are out to get even more of the Government's airtransport business. Congress has long sided with the airlines, ignored the steady decline of MATS; e.g., last year the House gunned down a MATS request for ten DC-8 jets costing $66 million.

Signs of Alarm. Only recently has Congress shown signs of concern. The House has appointed a special subcommittee to investigate the low state of MATS. Last week, noting that Bill Tunner was calling for a modernization budget of $250 million per year for the next eight years, the subcommittee passed a motion to press for the funds. It seemed none too soon.

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