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Subject: How Many C-5s would it take
phalanx30    5/12/2005 2:33:40 AM
How Many C-5s would it take to move an American Armored Division in one flight wave anywhere in the world? How about a Corps of three Mech divisions.
 
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Thomas    RE:How Many C-5s would it take   5/12/2005 4:12:27 AM
You are missing the point. One thing is to move an armoured division by air, that could be done - given time - but the hard part is keeping it supplied: If a division is around 20.000 men they use 40 kg supplies pr day - that is 800 tons a day that is 40 C-130 loads - every day - and mind you no srew-ups. And as you use air, roads (or rather trails) aren't liable to be able to support the supply train. This means you have an armoured division, that cannot move - which defies the proporsition in the first place.
 
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blacksmith    RE:How Many C-5s would it take   5/12/2005 7:36:06 PM
Amatuers study strategy. Professionals study logistics.
 
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perfectgeneral    RE:How Many C-5s would it take   9/17/2005 3:09:17 PM
The equipment for an armoured division is hard to pick up locally, but fuel, ammo and food can(in some cases) be sourced more locally. Assuming that the logistic tail would be crippling compared to the initial lift ignores this possibility. A C5 Galaxy moving a tank 5000 miles could then make a 1000 mile trip five times to resupply it. You can't airdrop an M1A1 like you can fuel and such, so the airfields get less congested too. I still wouldn't try it (there's always a better option than the hardest).
 
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B.Smitty    RE:How Many C-5s would it take   9/17/2005 4:27:54 PM
C-5s can't land "anywhere in the world". They require a fairly major airfield. Even then, you would find that multiple flights would be just as fast because of airfield limitations. A heavy BCT (2 mech BN, 1 tank BN) weights around 25000 tons, IIRC. The C-5 has a load planning factor of around 60 tons. Therefore a heavy BCT (not a division) would require around 417 sorties to move. Supporting it would be another matter. Not sure how many tons a heavy division would be.
 
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