Article

CRAF : hawks in doves' clothing ?

Matt C. C. Bristol

• The air force law review, Vol. 20, no. 1, 1978, p. 48-70

English

Photocopies

This article addresses the origins and concepts of operations of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), the "peacetime" employment of CRAF commited resources, and constraints imposed by public international law on their employment in areas of armed conflict outside the United States. The discussion devotes particular attention to the international legal consequences, under the laws governing armed conflict, of CRAF's failure to provide distinctive markings or other military indicia for civilian commercial aircraft actually employed in strategic military airlift of troops, military equipment, and supplies to areas of conflict outside the United States. Finally, the author suggests one possible approach to the problem of enabling belligerents to distinguish between civil aircraft, such as scheduled air service performed for public transport on an airline and aircraft used for military purposes in support of international conflict.