The Civil Air Patrol has more than 53,000 members: 34,000 in senior-member
and 19,000 in cadet programs. They come from varied backgrounds from police
chiefs to schoolteachers and from big cities and small towns. These
differences matter little. What does though is that all of these people want
to be involved in their community -- they want to help others -- and they
share a love of aviation.
Aviation Assets
The CAP Corporation owns 535 light aircraft, primarily Cessna 172s and
182s. Additionally, CAP members own another 4,700 aircraft that can be used to
support assigned missions.
When all of these assets are combined, CAP operates the world's largest fleet
of civil aircraft and flies nearly 130,000 hours each year.
An often overlooked resource is the number and experience of CAP pilots.
One-third of all CAP members are FAA-qualified pilots.
"Civil Air Patrol's missions are of increasing importance to our
nation. Literally thousands of Americans owe their lives to CAP's search and
rescue expertise; cadet membership is up and aerospace education as a
teaching tool is more popular and effective than ever."
Lt. Gen. Joseph J. Redden, U.S. Air Force
Commander, Air University
Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Ground Assets
In addition to aircraft, the CAP Corporation owns 950 ground vehicles to
support their missions.
Many of these vehicles are equipped with sophisticated communications
equipment that becomes invaluable during disasters or extended SAR missions.
The counterdrug mission is supported by airborne video and thermal imaging
equipment.
Communications
The Civil Air Patrol operates one of the largest communications systems in the
country with more than 6,000 fixed land stations and more than 10,000 land and
airmobile radios operated by over 20,000 trained communicators. This system
consists of voice and automatic digital communications capabilities on long
and short circuit paths. Hundreds of individual networks are linked together
to form a highly flexible and survivable nationwide traffic handling system.
The CAP National Digital Radio Network (NDRN) has drawn particular interest
from other organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency which
has joined the network and included it in their emergency communications
planning.
The NDRN consists of more than 2,000 computer based radio stations which
take advantage of leading edge technology to automatically establish links as
necessary and pass error-free message traffic throughout the system.
Because the system doesn't rely on telephone lines, it is highly survivable
in the event of natural or man-made disasters and--also because of its
radio-based architecture--it is extremely flexible allowing end-users to
"plug" into the system from anywhere within radio range of one of
the 500-plus system nodes across the country.
Supplies & Equipment
CAP screens mission-essential property from Defense Reutilization and
Marketing Offices as a federal agent.
Each level of CAP also has a combination of appropriated, state, and
donated funds to purchase equipment and support their missions.
