Flying above Afghanistan

The environment of Afghanistan, with its talcum powder dust everywhere, is not very forgiving.

Flying there is described, at times, like flying inside a brown ping pong ball, where you lose all your points of reference and don’t know where you are.

This happened last summer, when the Air Force lost a CH-146 Griffon during take off, and it makes the environment one of the biggest challenges facing Joint Task Force – Afghanistan Air Wing.

JTF-Afg Air Wing will play an important role in Afghanistan through to 2011, given assets such as the CC-130 Hercules tactical airlift which has been in- theatre since 2002. Because Afghanistan is a land-locked country, the safe and efficient way of getting there is by air. With four units under his command Colonel Christian Drouin, CO Air Wing, is kept very busy.

“Maintaining the aircraft is a big task,” he says. “Just to get spare parts flown here, and getting the proper support, is huge, to keep our assets serviceable and flying.”

One of the units under his command is the Canadian Heron Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) detachment. The three CU-170 Heron UAVs provide intelligence, surveillance and a precision target acquisition capability. “January 2009, it started flying operationally as our eye in the sky,” Col Drouin says. “It sits very high and gives us the ability to see what the enemy is doing so we can manage the battlefield properly. It’s a very reliable platform and it’s saving a lot of lives.”

The Heron can be equipped with a variety of sensors and information systems which provide persistent surveillance over a large area in support of ISAF operations in Kandahar province.

Eight CH-146 Griffon helicopters also play an important role, flying escort for the CH-147 Chinooks, taking part in angel flights—if personnel are wounded or killed in action, a Griffon goes in to pick them up—and making sure the assets they are escorting are safe. “We go around and pick up the deceased or casualties, but we are not maintaining a stand-by for this,” says Col Drouin. “But if we are flying around, we’re helping out.”

The Griffon, with its reliable on-board weapon, can also help troops in combat. “It’s very effective in helping troops on the ground when they are disengaging from the enemy,” says Col Drouin. “We do not use this platform offensively; we use it to help our troops break away from contact. We’re very sensitive to General McChrystal’s counter-insurgent document ... of trying not to invade their [Afghans] environment.”

Being aware of your local environment is also important for the six CH-147 Chinooks which have come on board. “It’s the workhorse of Afghanistan, as far as military forces are concerned,” says Col Drouin. “The Chinook is flown at very low altitudes over cities, and can create quite a downwash. We could injure local Afghans, so we are flying it as judiciously as we can to stay outside the threat band, supporting the troops without annoying the population.”

The D-model Chinooks were purchased from the US Army and were already in Afghanistan, making their transition in-theatre seamless. “They are a very robust aircraft,” says Col Drouin. “We can carry cargo inside, and outside in a sling, and can carry up to 30 troops. It’s fast and we rely on it quite a bit.”

The Chinooks fly not only in support of Canada, but also coalition missions within Regional Command South. “Within the command,” Col Drouin says, “there is a pool of aircraft which are tasked missions. We decide if we are going to accept the mission as per Canadian caveat, like whether it is too dangerous, too far – we have criteria within our threat envelope that is acceptable for us to fly.”

After all criteria are assessed a decision is made on whether the CF will fly the mission. Not many are turned down according to Col Drouin. “Sometimes it happens. The environment is more dangerous here than counter-insurgents. This is the most demanding environment you can find, probably on the planet, for helicopters, especially in the summer with +40°C temperatures. We assess the environment, insurgent threats and we make a decision on how we can mitigate it to make the mission happen.”

The summer temperatures are not only demanding on the aircraft but also on the ground crew. To prepare CF personnel for the Afghanistan temperatures and environment, training is done at CFB Wainwright, with two weeks in Arizona. “We get the same effect in the Arizona desert, with 41°C or 42°C temperatures,” says Col Drouin. “If you remove the houses, and look at the mountains and dust there, it’s just like Afghanistan. Except the cactus; here, they’re bigger.”

How much dust will be made in an area is one of the criteria looked at before a helicopter takes off and there are several solutions to keep it under control. One possibility can be to prepare the surface before the helicopters go in. “We lay water or something we call ‘rhino snot’,” Col Drouin says with a laugh. “‘Rhino snot’ is a gelatine-like substance that covers the ground. It’s very good at keeping the dust down for about a day and then evaporates. It’s environmentally friendly; this is why it’s so good.”

The CC-130 Hercules is another work horse and has done great service to Canada, both domestically and internationally. It has been used effectively by the Tactical Airlift Unit but will soon be replaced by the Hercules J model. “Without the Herc, we couldn’t do this mission,” Col Drouin says of the aircraft that moves both cargo and personnel.

Canada has contracted six MI-8 and two KA-32 helicopters, part of Canadian Contracted Air Transport (CCAT), to provide the Air Wing with logistic transport to our soldiers. CCAT moves about 51 tonnes of cargo each week. “They’re rugged and very powerful,” Col Drouin says.

The Air Wing comprises about 450 personnel – 90 or so aircrew and about 100 ground crew, with the remaining personnel spread among support elements such as logistics, drivers and supply.

by Cheryl MacLeod - The Maple Flag / Canadian Armed Forces