evacuated in a single day. During the fall of Kabul at the end of the War in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured most of Afghanistan in a 2021 offensive following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, foreign governments evacuated hundreds of thousands of their citizens as well as at-risk Afghans from Hamid Karzai International Airport. As part of the U.S. Armed Forces' Operation Allies Refuge, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin requisitioned U.S. airliners through the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to assist the U.S. Transportation Command. The U.S. Department of Defense later claimed to have evacuated 122,000 people, including U.S. citizens and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants. Other airlifts included the British Armed Forces' Operation Pitting, the Canadian Armed Forces' Operation AEGIS, and the Indian Armed Forces' Operation Devi Shakti. Strategic airlift Strategic airlift is the use of military transport aircraft to transport vehicles, materiel, weaponry, or personnel over long distances. Typically, this involves airlifting the required items between two airbases that are not in the same vicinity. This allows commanders to bring items into a combat theater from a point on the other side of the planet, if necessary. Aircraft which perform this role are considered strategic airlifters. This contrasts with tactical airlifters, such as the C-130 Hercules and Transall C-160, which can normally only move supplies within a given theater of operations. Examples of late current large strategic airlifters include: Airbus A400M Atlas Antonov An-124 Ruslan Antonov An-225 Mriya Boeing C-17 Globemaster III Ilyushin Il-76 Lockheed C-5 Galaxy Xi'an Y-20 However it is prohibitively expensive and impractical to shift a substantial mechanised force such as main battle tanks by air. For instance the M1 Abrams could only be carried by a C-5 Galaxy (two tanks) or a C-17 Globemaster III (one tank). This difficulty has prompted investment in lighter armoured fighting vehicles (such as the Stryker), as well as some preliminary research into alternative airlift technologies such as ground effect vehicles and airships. Civilian aircraft are also commonly used for transportation. For some civilian airlines, such as Volga-Dnepr Airlines, military contracts account for a large portion of their income. Tactical airlift Tactical airlift is a military term for the airborne transportation of supplies and equipment within a theatre of operations (in contrast to strategic airlift). Aircraft that perform this role are referred to as tactical airlifters. These are typically turboprop aircraft and feature short landing and take-off