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File: aabfd_03.txtinterface with Saudi officials on the field, we have been very successful in that regard. The A-10 operation originally came here projected to fly 40 to 50 sorties a day. Since I have been here, it has grown to almost 400 personnel with a projected capability to fly about 300 sorties a day; approximately 200 daytime, 100 at night. We have had a couple of added missions come in since that time; the addition of the F-16 FOL, which has become another tenant unit for the 4410th, flying between 48 and 64 sorties a day. Now we are also supporting a limited turn of French Jaguar aircraft. Of course, as the war effort has accelerated, the MAC mission has continued to grow also. The only way we have been able to handle the intensity of the airfield flow is through the very skillful air traffic control operation that U.S. military has been able to establish here. We flow all traffic in generally up to a 20-knot tail wind, landing to the north. The fighters cycle back to the south, launch again to the north. MAC traffic cycles through the field on the ground to the north, and then launches to the south, so we have continual opposing traffic departures, which requires a very skillful air traffic control operation. Fortunately, we have had highly qualified people who have made that happen. In the last 10 days, today being the 22d of February, as we have neared what appeared to be the beginning of a ground conflict, we have reassessed our capability again to determine exactly what we could handle should the flying operation continue to intensify. We have revalidated the fact that we can handle about 300 A-10s a day, around 64 to 70 F-16s, and some level of MAC traffic which will be driven by the amount of ramp space that they are able to occupy at any one time. 3
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