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File: aabfd_03.txt
Page: 03
Total Pages: 9

	interface 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.

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