The Royal Air Force Hercules detachment at Kandahar, Afghanistan, is tasked to support British forces in the turbulent southern provinces of Afghanistan as well as the coalition forces throughout the country. The Hercules force is led by 70 Squadron, the Hercules C. Mk. 3 unit based at RAF Lyneham, England. The unit is supported by ground personnel, which includes engineers, armourers, and logistics technicians, all based around what is called a deployable operations cell. In addition to the Hercules air and ground crews, 47 Air Dispatch Squadron, a High Readiness Army unit based at RAF Lyneham, remains on standby at Kandahar in case weapons are needed.
The principal task of the Hercules force is to airlift troops and supplies into and around Helmand province and into the force's main troop base, Camp Bastion, in the middle of Afghanistan's volatile poppy-growing region. Hercules crews also support the UK 16 Air Assault Brigade by helping to provide airdrops, if required, for the thirty-five nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, and the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom coalition effort throughout Afghanistan.
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TriStar Arrival
British troops arrive at Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, on a Royal Air Force TriStar based at RAF Brize Norton. The passengers all don helmets and body armor as the wide-body jet begins its descent to Kabul, which is enclosed by snow-capped mountains, 6,000 feet above sea level. In good weather, the approach to Kabul is spectacular. In bad weather, the approach can be treacherous.
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Kandahar Operations
RAF assets at Kandahar include two Hercules C. Mk. 3 (C-130K) and two C. Mk. 4 (C-130J) tactical transports, six Chinook C.2 support helicopters, and six Harrier GR.7A attack jets. These aircraft are supplemented by eight British Army Air Corps Apache AH Mk. 1 attack helicopters and four Lynx AH Mk. 9 support helicopters. The assets are part of the UK 904th Expeditionary Air Wing.
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Kabul Crossroads
A variety of Hercules transports, like this Safair L-100-30, appear often on the ramp at Kabul. Some of the 4,500-strong UK force will be based at Camp Souter, the RAF headquarters on the outskirts of Kabul, but most will be deployed to Helmand Task Force headquarters at Kandahar Airfield, some 200 miles to the southeast. Kabul is considered a crossroads in Afghanistan.
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One Day At Work
The RAF aircraft, aircrews, and ground crews in Afghanistan are heavily tasked, as this photo attests to one recent day's operations. The workday began when an RAF Hercules C.4 (C-130J) took off from Kandahar in support of an ISAF mission. The aircraft carried a pallet of stores and a Swedish general and his staff. The first destination for the Super Hercules was Maimana, to support an ISAF Provincial Reconstruction Team based in the northern Faryab province close to the Afghanistan border with Turkmenistan. After a one-hour transit, flying over snow-covered peaks and deep sandstone canyons, the C-130Jw crew swerved to approach the short dirt airstrip at Maimana, 2,800 feet above sea level.
The pallet was offloaded with aircraft engines running. Norwegian medics came on board with a late request for the two loadmasters to rig a stretcher in the cabin. A five-year-old Afghan boy accompanied by his father and a Norwegian doctor was then carefully carried on board. The boy, suffering from a serious head injury, had been in a coma for several days before the doctor found the child in a remote village. After a full power takeoff from the short strip, the Hercules crew took off for Mazar-e-Sharif in the northern Balkh province near the Uzbekistan border.
Lt. Gen. Marco Del Vecchio, then commander of ISAF, boarded the aircraft in Mazar-e-Sharif. Accompanying him was the German ambassador to Afghanistan who was on his way to a meeting with Afghan's President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. The ambassador was traveling with a squad of heavily armed German Special Forces.
The Super Hercules' next scheduled destination was Konduz, 100 miles to the east. However, Vecchio requested that he and his troops be flown directly to Herat, more than one flight hour to the west. As air traffic control communications are unreliable in many parts of Afghanistan, the Hercules captain used his satellite mobile phone to call the UK Ministry of Defence for permission to change the flight plan. Permission was immediately granted.
Having delivered the Italian troop to Herat, fifty miles from the Afghanistan border with Iran, the crew took off for the last leg to Kabul. The C-130J dropped below the cloud cover to touch down after this ninety-minute transit flight. The two-man crew had been in the cockpit for almost six hours flying through weather ranging from heat and high winds to heavy rain and limited visibility. At no time did the crew shut down the C-130J engines. The RAF loadmasters accommodated troops from six different nations as well as one Afghan casualty . . . all in a day's work for the RAF C-130J and its experienced aircrew.
David Oliver is the editor of Jane's Helicopter Markets and Systems and was the founding editor of AirForces Monthly. This is his first article for Code One.
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