Lets talk numbers..bums on seats!
Suppose we were able to fly a 6 day a week shed into theatre with some modern, reliable, properly equipped 250 seat class strat airlifters.
That's 1500 bods a week.
Say we had 10,000 bods in theatre (a figure banded about recently in the media as possible in the near future)
It would take 7 weeks to rotate everyone once, allowing for a bit of flex for WX and snags. Another 7 weeks to give everyone an R&R break and another 7 weeks to rotate out the replacements giving a min 21 week tour.
To run such a schedule needs at least two of these 250 seat a/c plus a reserve to ensure against tech snags. Two crews for each return flight (min) so a manning to cover leave/sickies/training/JPA of at least 3 and possibly 4 crews per jet.
So that 3 frames for just one schedule. Same again if we support two theatres and some extra for EX and training, plus the crews to make it so.
The thing is we need this NOW! Not in 5-10 years! I don't care who makes 'em as long as they can do the job and be delivered by monday!
To paraphrase the guy in the filum "We were Soldiers"
"If the planes stop coming...we all die!"
A TP