hich affect to any significant extent the CRAF may legitimately be considered to be national defense related.
In the conduct of this research, the initial step is to define the CRAF. Once the CRAF is defined, it will then be possible to determine what type of potential outcomes of the deregulation of the air transportation industry could conceivably affect positively or negatively the CRAF to any significant extent. In turn, the identification of these potential outcomes will permit the formulation of research questions to assess the effects of air transportation deregulation in the United States on the CRAF, and to evaluate the extent to which governmental actions in the economic arena should receive prior review for national defense implications.
Transportation is a vital component of the nation's national defense.1 Unlike the situation in almost all other countries, however, where public ownership of transportation is typical, the transportation industry in the United States is largely in private sector.2 The situation in the United States, thus, regardless of any economic, social, political, and philosophical merits, holds the potential to place national defense at an undefined level of potential risk. Government regulation of transportation in the United States, therefore, has significant national defense implications, in addition to any economic, social, political, and philosophical considera tions which may be involved.
The creation of the CRAF was one governmental response to the defense transportation problem.3 The CRAF is intended to work in conjunction with the Military Airlift Command.4 The CRAF, thus, is a creation of the national airlift policy, which forges a common bond between the Department of Defense, and the civil aviation industry.5 Through contractual arrangements between Department of Defense and individual air transportation carriers, "a fleet of preidentified civil passenger and cargo aircraft...