Enduring Airlift

Afghanistan is a logistician’s nightmare, and air mobility is the solution.

By Marc V. Schanz, Associate Editor

USA photo by Spc. Micah E. Clare

ith a new 20,000-strong con- tingent of US troops streaming Winto Afghanistan, the task of generating

required logistics support has jumped USAF photo TSgt.by John Jung near the top of the Pentagon “to do” list. The new increment of ground forces will need tons of materiel and lots of transport, and all signs are that USAF’s airlift will be the key. The Air Force’s mobility fleet has been vital throughout eight years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, swiftly and reliably moving thousands of service members, contractors, bullets, guns, supplies, water—you name it. While airlift proved important in the Iraq war, it may well become decisive for the renewed US war effort in Af- Top: A C-17 drops combat delivery system bundles to ground forces in Afghani- ghanistan. stan. Above: Army Spc. Joshua Vazquez (left) and SMSgt. Timothy Gaines move a USAF Col. Gregory Schwartz, chief pallet into a C-130 cargo bay before an air-drop mission. of contingency operations at US Trans- portation Command, reported, “I could In fact, Afghanistan amounts to a Generally, cargo and supplies move make the argument that airlift is more logistician’s nightmare. into Afghanistan over land arteries from important to sustain what we have go- To begin with, the country lacks mod- the north and south. However, the land ing on in Afghanistan,” if for no other ern infrastructure, possesses no access routes leading into Afghanistan are reason that Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, to sea or river ports, and is ringed by fraught with difficulty and danger. They has no established national distribu- some of the highest and most rugged are under constant threat of insurgent tion system. mountains on Earth. attack. What’s more, surrounding na- 44 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2009 tions impose political constraints on the buildup to Operation Desert Storm, Afghanistan and assisted with moving the type of cargo that can be moved to Horton added. sea-lifted supplies from Kuwaiti seaports the Afghan border. “It’s definitely increased our work- into the Afghan theater. Certain sensitive items (such as am- load,” said Maj. Michael Riley, acting Reich recalled flying sorties into For- munition and armaments) can’t be commander and operations officer for ward Operating Base Bastion, a remote shipped between certain areas, Schwartz the 436th Aerial Port Squadron. “There coalition outpost in rugged Helmand said, and have to go in by air. These sup- are days where we’re pushing over 400 province. Bastion possessed a tiny, plies are often air-dropped or delivered tons a day outbound.” Supplies run the 90-foot-wide airstrip. And that was the at austere landing fields. gamut from spare mine-resistant-vehicle high end of the landing experience. In In July, US and coalition forces of axles and armor kits to rolling stock, his squadron’s deployment, he noted, Operation Enduring Freedom generated trailers, and building materials. C-17 aircrews performed 11 dirt strip a record: Some 3.3 million pounds of The traffic has also increased due to landings. supplies were air-dropped around the the addition of new “channel missions” Given Afghanistan’s difficult geo- country. Deliveries ranged from combat from other units for Dover’s airlifters, graphic circumstances and delicate re- support supplies to humanitarian goods. Riley said. These regularly scheduled gional politics, sustainment of American The impact of the mobility surge runs, which began in March, are mostly operations in Afghanistan has long been is evident not only in Afghanistan used for basic resupply. The channel a concern of US officials. USAF photo by SrA. Felicia Juenke

but also on flight lines at US bases, missions require Dover aircraft to fly Three C-17s occupy a flight line at where units now are feeling a strain. into Kabul and Bagram several times Bagram AB, Afghanistan. “We have a finite number of resources, per week. and those are in continuous use,” said “We may fly two or three or four of Col. David B. Horton, the commander those a week,” Horton said, “whereas In March, Gen. Duncan J. McNabb— of the 436th Operations Group, Dover contingencies are more irregular. ... commander of US Transportation Com- AFB, Del., which operates both C-5 There is a time sensitivity to it, which mand—testified on the state of supply and C-17 airlifters for the Afghanistan is why we are flying it.” lines, cautioning that sustainment in operation. Afghanistan would be a challenge. “The mission in Southwest Asia has A Very Different Mission “You probably couldn’t ask [for] or shifted,” said Horton. Iraq no longer Capt. Jeremy Reich, a C-17 weapons find a tougher place, from a logistics has top priority. officer and chief of tactics with the 3rd challenge [perspective], of getting the Dover is one of the Defense De- Airlift Squadron at Dover, experienced stuff in,” McNabb told the Senate Armed partment’s busiest US logistical hubs, the increased operations tempo this past Services Committee. providing some 25 percent of USAF’s summer when he carried out a 60-day In March, just as the US troop buildup global airlift capability and home to the deployment downrange. was picking up speed, TRANSCOM 436th Aerial Port Squadron. The 436th “I was deployed [in] 2006, and back was sending into Afghanistan each day is currently DOD’s largest air freight then it was mostly OIF. ... I’d say about an average of some 130 to 140 supply operation, and serves as the aerial port a 60/40 split,” recalled Reich, a six-year containers. for much of the materiel headed east to veteran of C-17 operations. “This time Sealift plays an important, but only Southwest Asia. it was significantly different, and it was partial, role. Cargo comes by ship to For three consecutive months this a lot more of the OEF missions.” the Pakistani port city of Karachi on the spring—from April through June— In addition to flying normal inter- Indian Ocean, and then can be trucked Dover’s cargo throughput exceeded theater routes, C-17 aircrews moved a overland through mountain passes to the monthly record set in early 1991 in good deal of equipment from Iraq into Afghanistan. These routes are exposed AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2009 45 panded from some 1,200 passengers to 1,600 passengers. In February, the Air Force began surg- ing as much support capacity as possible to help build up facilities to handle the traffic. Even months later, new buildings, aerial port facilities, airstrips, and other USAF photo by SrA. Felicia Juenke permanent structures continue to sprout in Afghanistan. “You go to Bagram and Kandahar [Airfield], they’re absolutely full up with missions,” said Air Force Civil Engineer Maj. Gen. Delwyn R. Eulberg in March. The ramps at both facilities are “burst- ing at the seams,” he added, noting that at Bagram alone, four concrete batch plants were operating 24 hours a day for the past 18 months to keep pace with demand for concrete, used everywhere on an air base. Airmen unload a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle (MRAP) from the belly On some ramps, aircraft are parked of a C-17 at Bagram on Aug. 4, 2009. three deep, a sight Eulberg said he had not witnessed in 31 years of service. and dangerous, however. To the west coalition personnel transiting the base (Eulberg retired from active duty in lies Iran, which permits no US transport. to Afghanistan. August.) To alleviate the crowding, Routes through Central Asia remain The commercial aviation sector pro- USAF has shifted as much of its civil critical to the effort. This is particularly vides a significant fraction of US airlift engineering capacity as possible to meet true of the air route through Kyrgyzstan’s capability, offering the power to expand demand, Eulberg said. RED HORSE Manas Air Base, located just outside US airlift at low cost. Commercial units moved into the country to erect of the capital, Bishkek. The Pentagon transit is also why overflight issues are airstrips in many locations. reports that about 15,000 US person- so important at the top levels of US In the country’s restive south, US and nel and some 500 tons of cargo move Central Command and TRANSCOM, coalition officials enhanced existing through the base each month. as commercial traffic delivers loads to infrastructure, stood up new squadrons, In March, the Air Force assigned three key hubs where they are transferred to and established a second expeditionary C-17s from Pacific Air Forces units to fly military lift. wing at Kandahar Airfield. round-the-clock missions from Manas To support the number of air-drop into Afghanistan and deliver critical Bursting at the Seams resupply and airlift taskings in country, cargo on an urgent basis. The C-17s With bare-bones infrastructure in the 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squad- flew in critical supplies without slow- place, building up facilities and airstrips ron (a C-130J unit) was activated at ing down or otherwise interfering with is just as much a strategic effort as a the airfield on March 15. It came with other operations at the base. Supplies tactical one, officials claim. “Improv- eight Js and about 120 operations and included materials for aircraft parking ing the infrastructure is not only for maintenance personnel. On the day ramps for new Marine Corps airfields our logistical issues ... but also for the prior to the stand-up, the first four of used to support the summer offensive Afghans,” Schwartz said, noting air the squadron’s aircraft were already against the Taliban in Helmand province. infrastructure’s contribution to building flying missions. Earlier this year, Kyrgyzstan’s gov- an economy. Coalition allies are throwing whatever ernment indicated it would end the US The US has brought steady improve- they can into the airlift pot. In July, the lease on the facility by August—sending ments to some of Afghanistan’s more Strategic Airlift Capability consortium US and coalition allies scrambling to important airfields, which now can stood up, comprising10 NATO and two find new basing rights in neighboring accept more and larger aircraft, such non-NATO countries that will jointly countries. In June, however, the Kyrgyz as the C-5. operate a wing of three C-17s from parliament ratified a new agreement This is not a luxury, but a necessity. Papa AB, Hungary. The unit’s first which would allow the US to continue The Air Force’s main in-country hub, airlifter, which arrived at the base July use of Manas as a transit and logistics Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, has 18, was immediately prepped to start hub under a one-year lease of the facil- experienced a rising wave of traffic flying support for alliance operations ity. The deal was wrapped up in July. since the beginning of the year. The in Afghanistan. For all the threats, development of base’s 455th Expeditionary Aerial Port From the start, aircrews and logisti- Manas never ended. A nine-member Squadron was processing around 14,000 cians pushing materiel forward have airfield resources team from Holloman tons of cargo a month in May—about had a clear perspective on their mission. AFB, N.M., erected two dome shelters double the volume being processed “If those Army guys were going to for the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing. only a few months earlier, according drink, it’s because we brought them the The new 4,000-square-foot shelters to squadron officials. The passenger water via airdrop,” Reich said. Without added needed bunk space and latrines, terminal at Bagram has also seen sharp airlift, “you would have to ... get it critical to the large number of US and growth in traffic; the daily rate has ex- through the mountains.” n 46 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2009