US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered the activation of "Stage I of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF)" to assist with the evacuation efforts from Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Sunday. In a statement, the Pentagon said that the CRAF activation "provides the Department of Defense access to commercial air mobility resources to augment our support to the Department of State in the evacuation of US citizens and personnel, Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and other at-risk individuals from Afghanistan." It indicated that the current activation is for 18 aircraft from six US airlines. "CRAF activated aircraft will not fly into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul," the statement noted. "They will be used for the onward movement of passengers from temporary safe havens and interim staging bases." Activating CRAF "increases passenger movement beyond organic capability and allows military aircraft to focus on operations in and out of in Kabul. "This is the third CRAF activation in the history of the program," the statement added. US officials said Sunday that American commercial airlines — including American Airlines, Delta and United — will be marshaled to help the evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans and foreigners from Kabul following its fall to Taliban extremists. "The DOD"s ability to project military forces is inextricably linked to commercial industry, which provides critical transportation capacity as well as global networks to meet day-to-day and contingency requirements," a statement announcing the move said. "We"re going to try our very best to get everybody, every American citizen who wants to get out, out," Austin said in an ABC interview on the evacuation mission, adding that the same applied to America"s Afghan allies. The Civil Reserve Air Fleet has only been activated twice — once to fly troops for the 1990-1991 Gulf War and again in 2002-2003 for the Iraq invasion. With thousands of troops trying to secure Kabul"s airport, Washington has set a deadline to complete one of the largest evacuation missions the Pentagon has ever conducted by Aug. 31. But US President Joe Biden has said the deadline could be extended if necessary, pledging to get all Americans and Afghan allies out. There are up to 15,000 Americans and 50,000 to 60,000 Afghan allies who need to be evacuated, according to the Biden administration. On Saturday the Pentagon said 17,000 people had been taken out since the operation began on Aug. 14, including 2,500 Americans, averaging slightly more than 2,000 evacuations a day. Thousands more have left on other foreign military flights. — Agencies