A combined active duty and Air Force Reserve Command crew from Dover AFB, Delaware, teamed to fly a C-5M Super Galaxy on a fifteen-hour, direct nonstop mission from Dover to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, on 5–6 June 2011. The flight was the first time a US Air Force aircraft had been flown on a northern route over the Arctic Circle, over Russia, and over Kazakhstan to Afghanistan. US Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command officials at Scott AFB, Illinois, described the mission as a proof-of-concept flight to help establish future sustainment operations in Afghanistan. The C-5M, a C-5A converted as part of the Super Galaxy test fleet, was refueled by an Air National Guard KC-135R tanker crew over northern Canada.
