Remember Tarin Kowat. The battle that defeated the Taliban 5 yrs ago
November 27, 2006 on 9:02 am | In Articles | No Comments
PBS’s Frontline
“Initially, the plan that we came up with was to close off all the major mountain passes leading into Tarin Kowt, then lay siege to the town with a large force. Hamid anticipated that the village itself would essentially surrender to us. But at the same time, we had to make sure that we could protect that whole valley that Tarin Kowt was located in from any counterattack from the Taliban, particularly from Kandahar. …”
stated by Capt. Jason Amerine
Where’s the honor in abandonment?
November 26, 2006 on 10:07 pm | In Articles | No CommentsSen. Chuck Hagel, C&R-Neb., offers up a novel idea: abandonment with honor. Well, it’s an old idea, but it’s shiny and new again. This particular item can always be brought off the back shelf, polished, marked up and put in the front window when people who were previously enthusiastic about a war discover it is hard, it costs lives and money, and it can be unpopular.
Military mothers yearn to be whole
November 25, 2006 on 3:20 pm | In Articles | No Comments
When they called her name, she could not move. Sgt. Leana Nishimura intended to walk up proudly, shake the dignitaries’ hands and accept their honors for her service in Iraq — a special coin, a lapel pin, a glass-encased U.S. flag.
But her son clung to her leg. He cried and held tight, she recalled. And so Nishimura stayed where she was, and the ceremony last summer went on without her. T.J. was 9, her oldest child, and although eight months had passed since she had returned from the war zone, he was still upset by anything that reminded him of her deployment.
He remembered the long separation. The faraway move to live with his grandmother. The months that went by without his mother’s kisses or hugs, without her scrutiny of homework, her teasing humor, her familiar bedtime songs.
Boeing to Build New SCAR Helicopter
November 25, 2006 on 12:56 pm | In Articles | No CommentsBy Harold Kennedy
The Air Force has awarded Boeing Helicopter, of Ridley Park, Pa., a contract worth a possible $15 billion to build 141 next-generation combat search-and-rescue helicopters.
The new helicopters would be HH-47s — updated versions of the CH-47 Chinooks that the Air Force has been flying for 50 years. They would replace a current, aging combat search-and-rescue fleet of 101 HH-G Pave Hawks.
Both the Pave Hawk and the HC-130 are obsolete and should be retired, said Air Force Reserve Col. Steve Kirkpatrick, commander of the 920 Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.
“The HH-60 is a great aircraft, but it is really limited,” he told a recent conference in Arlington, Va. “We need a helicopter with more cabin space and better performance in mountainous terrain.”
Search and Rescue
November 25, 2006 on 12:53 pm | In Articles | No CommentsWith U.S. forces heavily engaged in combat, peacekeeping and disaster-relief missions around the world, military search-and-rescue units are trying to figure out how to work more closely together while saving lives.Although the Air Force has primary responsibility for combat search and rescue, all of the services have units that conduct life-saving missions. To be successful, they frequently have to cooperate with each other — and after 9/11 and a series of natural disasters at home — with state and local first-responders.
The problem is that all of these organizations operate differently, said Air Force Reserve Col. Steve Kirkpatrick, commander of the 920 Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.
“The Air Force has one way of doing things; the Army has another,” he told a recent conference in Arlington, Va. The same is true of the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and civilian emergency services. “We have to work on a standard game plan.”
Search-and-rescuers from all of the services and some civilian agencies gathered at the conference, sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, to discuss common problems and possible solutions. High on their list of imperatives was improving their ability to conduct joint operations amid the often-frantic circumstances of life-saving missions.
Kirkpatrick cited two major, back-to-back events when multi-organizational cooperation was critical. The first occurred in June 2005 while the 920th was deployed to Afghanistan. “A Navy SEAL (sea, air and land) reconnaissance team was surprised and overwhelmed by a larger enemy force, and an MH-47 helicopter sent to rescue them was shot down,” he recalled. All 16 on board the chopper —- SEALs and Army special operations aviators — were killed. The entire recon team was missing.
Air Force Times article
November 25, 2006 on 12:41 pm | In Articles | No CommentsSikorsky files protest of Air Force CSAR choice
By Vago Muradian
Staff writerSikorsky Aircraft on Nov. 17 protested the Air Force’s decision to award Boeing a $15 billion contract to supply the service’s future combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) helicopters.
Sikorsky filed the protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which adjudicates government contracting decisions. Once a protest is lodged, all work on a program is halted until the GAO issues a final ruling.
Company spokesman Ed Steadham confirmed the protest.
“Sikorsky seeks to ensure the selection process accurately evaluated the characteristics and performance of its HH-92 helicopter,” he said.
Sikorsky’s HH-92 competed against Boeing’s HH-47 and the US101 by Lockheed Martin, AgustaWestland and Bell Helicopter Textron for the contract to build 141 helicopters to replace the Air Force’s Sikorsky HH-60G helicopters starting in 2012.
Lockheed also is expected to protest Boeing’s Nov. 9 win by the close of business Nov. 20. Lockheed spokesman Greg Caires declined to comment on a protest, saying the company had been debriefed by the Air Force and was “assessing the data provided.”
The Air Force pick is even coming under fire from some search-and-rescue airmen, who are baffled that their 22,000-pound HH-60Gs are going to be replaced not by another medium-lift helicopter, but by a massive heavy-lift aircraft. The Chinook tips the scales at 54,000 pounds.
Search-and-rescue crew members have long complained that their HH-60s are too small, but they also like the helicopter’s agility, which they call key to survival.
They wanted a helicopter that was larger than the HH-60, but say that while the HH-47 is a fine aircraft, it is simply too large, lumbering and loud for the mission.
The decision even caught Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and service chief Gen. Michael “Buzz” Moseley off guard. When briefed Nov. 7, both questioned why a heavy-lift helicopter had been picked to replace a medium-lift aircraft, sources said.
The answer, sources said, was that the evaluators made a straight choice on quantifiable capabilities without valuing categories that could be viewed as subjective.
Supporters of the US101 and the HH-92 argue that their aircraft are quieter, more agile and have lower operating cost than the larger HH-47. The HH-47 won because it can carry 27,000 pounds of fuel and cargo — has longer unrefueled range and a higher operating altitude than the other aircraft. That extra payload also would prove handy in noncombat missions such as disaster relief.
Air Force officials also have said that the HH-47, which has been in service some four decades, would arrive sooner and is a less risky choice than the US101 and HH-92.
Wynne and Moseley decided to stand by the choice to avoid giving the impression of undue command influence on the acquisition decision, sources said. Both men have stressed that the helicopter decision would be made fairly and unimpeachably to help rebuild confidence in the Air Force acquisition system, which was tarnished by the Darleen Druyun affair.
AFSOF Warrior
November 25, 2006 on 12:27 pm | In Articles | No CommentsBrigadier General (S) Michael W. Callan
Commander, Air Force Special Operations Forces
Air Force Special Operations Command
Brigadier General (S) Michael W. Callan is the commander, Air Force Special Operations Forces, Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Fla. As the warfighting headquarters for AFSOC, AFSOF is responsible for supporting the U.S. Special Operations Command and AFSOC commander’s strategic, operational and tactical objectives across the full range of military operations. AFSOF works in concert with USSOCOM in directing all Air Force special operations air taskings during contingencies or wartime.
Callan entered the Air Force in 1981 as a Reserve Officer Training Corps graduate. He is a command pilot with more than 4,200 flying hours. He was the assistant deputy director for special operations for the Joint Staff prior to assuming his current duties. He also commanded the 71st Flying Training Wing, Vance Air Force Base, Okla. In addition, he held a number of flying and staff positions to include instructor/flight examiner pilot, USAF and U.S. special operations action officer, and senior military assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy.
Callan’s military awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Aerial Achievement Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Kosovo Campaign Medal with one oak leaf cluster and the NATO Medal.
Interviewed by Editor Rodney Pringle
Pararescue school to build new campus
November 24, 2006 on 1:11 pm | In Articles | No CommentsKirtland Air Force Base, N.M. — Capt. Joseph Barnard respects the history surrounding him as he shows off a building at Pararescue and Combat Rescue Officer School.
There is the Medal of Honor presented to the family of Airman 1st Class William H. Pitsenbarger, who was fatally wounded in 1966 while treating soldiers in a South Vietnamese jungle.
There is an al-Qaida AK47 rifle from the 2002 Battle of Roberts Ridge, in which Senior Airman Jason Cunningham died while caring for injured and wounded soldiers.
Students walking these small hallways understand they are standing in the footsteps of pararescuemen whose names evoke the sacrifices they could be called upon to make.
“These kids know they are going to be shot at. … They are very, very serious,” Barnard, 42, said of his airmen.
Soon, the school will make room for more students, and the scattered facilities will be consolidated onto a campus.
With the Air Force looking to boost from 88 to 140 the number of airmen who graduate annually out of the two-year-long pararescue course, the school has started the first phase of building a $64 million campus at Kirtland.
The Air Education and Training Command unit broke ground Nov. 9 for a five-story training tower topped by two mock-ups of aircraft cargo bays and loading ramps. From the tower’s heights, students will practice skills such as fast roping to the ground.
The old school is spread across several parts of Kirtland. An instructor in the school headquarters building who wants to check up on a surgical class has to walk or drive about three-quarters of a mile between buildings. Students must walk a similar distance between their dormitories and many of the teaching areas.
The master plan for the new school gathers most of the Kirtland facilities into a common campus where the base’s Zia Park housing area had been.
The campus plan includes dormitories, a gym, urban combat training area, surgical skills training buildings, administrative and classroom buildings, and a “heritage hall” of memorabilia from past pararescue operations.
A memorial will feature a statue of Pitsenbarger. The pararescue community is hoping to raise about $320,000 from private donations for the memorial.
One essential part of the course that won’t change with the new facilities is the requirement that students have “gumption,” said Barnard, who graduated from the enlisted course in 1989 and was later commissioned as a combat rescue officer.
“You can’t be scared to scuba dive. You can’t be scared to hang over the side of a rock with a rope. You really can’t be scared of anything,” he said.
Of the airmen who apply to become pararescuemen or rescue officers, about 25 percent will make it through the indoctrination course at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, Barnard said.
The applicants who do the best at Lackland arrive with discipline and physical toughness. They might have been on a school wrestling or water polo team or raised in a military family.
Of those who reach the Kirtland school, about 98 percent will graduate.
Today, the school annually graduates four classes of students, with the average class numbering 22 airmen, Barnard said.
The school typically has an enrollment of 140 to 170 students and a cadre of 45 instructional personnel.
New Chopper Too Vulnerable?
November 14, 2006 on 2:50 pm | In Articles | No CommentsThe Air Force’s newest helicopter might be too big and vulnerable for its intended role, according to one critic.On November 9, the Air Force announced that it had awarded Boeing a $10 billion contract to build 141 operational HH-47 helicopters for search and rescue, a role now performed by around 100 much smaller, nimbler Sikorsky HH-60G Pavehawks. The first HH-47s will reach frontline squadrons in 2012.
Traditionally, search and rescue targeted fighter pilots shot down just behind enemy lines. In recent years, the mission has evolved to include reinforcement of embattled soldiers, disaster relief and the evacuation of civilians from war zones, such as was undertaken by U.S. military chopper pilots in the early days of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. “We have identified a lack of speed, range and survivability against future threats [in the HH-60],” said Lieutenant Colonel David Morgan, an Air Force officer formerly associated with the replacement chopper program. “The aircraft is not large enough to be able to recover the number of survivors that we want.”
With that in mind, the Air Force picked the 25-ton (maximum weight) HH-47 over the 15-ton Lockheed Martin US-101 and the 14-ton Sikorsky S-92 to replace the 11-ton HH-60. But trading up to a bigger bird has drawbacks, says one member of the Air Force rescue community.
Due to its size, the HH-47 is “a tailor-made [Rocket-Propelled Grenade] target,” says the airman, who requested anonymity since he is not authorized to speak to the press. “It’s big and can’t maneuver quickly, making it easier to hit by the skilled RPG gunners we face in Afghanistan and Iraq. The smaller, more maneuverable aircraft … are better able to defensively maneuver to complicate the targeting efforts of our enemies. If you scour the news reports of helicopter shoot-downs in Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll see that most were caused by small arms or RPGs or both — and many of those were -47s, including the famous SEAL incident last summer. The -47 is also louder, which gives those gunners more warning that we’re coming.”
Chinooks in Iraq usually operate only at night after one Chinook was shot down in broad daylight in 2003, killing 15 soldiers. Another 17 people were killed in the June 2005 downing of a Chinook in Afghanistan — the “SEAL incident” the airman refers to.
“Since it is so big, [the HH-47] can’t fit into nearly as many [Landing Zones] as the -60, -92 or -101,” the airman continues. “What this means is that the helo will have to hover and use the hoist or some other means to extract the isolated person. A helicopter in hover is the most vulnerable any aircraft can be, so it’s no surprise that crews … prefer to land, but the -47 will limit their options in this regard. Alternatively, the survivors would have to evade to a large LZ, placing them at greater risk of being captured or killed.”
Boeing, for its part, stresses the basic Chinook’s extensive record in Iraq and Afghanistan as proof of its suitability. “The tandem rotor, heavy-lift, high-altitude HH-47 is based on the CH/MH-47 Chinook transport helicopter,” a statement reads. “[It has] performance capabilities that have been widely demonstrated in the ongoing global war on terrorism and in numerous U.S. and international humanitarian relief operations.”
Boeing officials could not be reached for further comment before deadline.
“Communication problem can delay bomb run….”
November 13, 2006 on 8:39 am | In Articles | No CommentsAir Force upgrading A-10s to digital radios
By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, November 12, 2006
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany — A-10 pilots flying close-air support missions over Iraq and Afghanistan will soon no longer have to deal with a potentially risky problem because the planes there are getting a critical radio upgrade.
The single-seat, twin-engine plane designed to protect ground troops has been a workhorse in both countries. But pilots have had to operate with old radios that can cut off a transmission if both the pilot and controller do not pause for three to five seconds before transmitting.
This month, crews began installing more reliable digital radios for those planes flying over Afghanistan and Iraq, Maj. Don Henry, Air Combat Command’s chief of A-10 modernization, told Stars and Stripes on Thursday.
A timetable for upgrades for the rest of the “Warthog” fleet is uncertain because of wartime budget shortages. More than 82 percent of the service’s 356 A-10s will remain without the radios until the Air Force receives $60 million needed to upgrade the rest of the fleet.
Although A-10 pilots have dealt with the outdated radios for years, the situation came to public attention when Air Combat Command put out a surprising press release last month about the lack of funding for new radios.
The article, posted on the command’s official Web site, called the older technology “a high risk to ground support operations.” But last week, Air Force officials downplayed the potential risk.
The Oct. 12 release was originally titled “AF to bypass critical A-10 upgrades, budget to blame,” but it now appears online with the headline “A-10 radio upgrades limited to deployed aircraft.”
“So far, it has not been an issue in terms of fratricide or risks in that sense,” Henry said. “Honestly, the fact that it’s been around so long and has not been an issue is really a tribute to our pilots and maintenance folks in the field.”
The problem with the old, line-of-sight radios happens when pilots switch to a secure mode.
A synchronization problem requires pilots in the A-10s and troops calling in airstrikes on the ground to turn on their microphones and then wait as long as five seconds. If the pilot or ground controller does not pause before speaking, the transmission can be cut or not heard at all.
The communication problem can delay a bombing run for less than a minute, but seconds can be critically important to troops on the ground when they’re in the middle of an intense firefight and need help from above.
Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany is home to the sole U.S. A-10 squadron permanently based in Europe. When the 81st Fighter Squadron deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year, it used the older radios.
A-10 pilot Capt. Steve Sztan said he encountered “multiple cases” in which a radio transmission was cut or was not received at all as he waited for permission to drop bombs.
Pilots need clearance before releasing a weapon to ensure friendly forces are not in the way. The radio problem can be overcome, but Sztan said it requires impeccable teamwork under stressful situations.
“It is a question and answer, checks and balance between me in the air and the guy on the ground to make sure we kill the right people,” Sztan said. “So, if I don’t hear the right things, then I’m going to question him. If he doesn’t hear the right things out of me, he needs to question me. So, we work together as a team.”
The radio problem also is known widely by controllers, but Sztan said pilots constantly had to remind them to pause before talking.
“Sometimes you do have to go back and forth and say, ‘Umm, I didn’t hear that. Don’t forget to wait two seconds,’” he said.
Providing close air support for ground force requires little margin of error in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where fighting between coalition forces an insurgents can be extremely close.
A Sept. 4 friendly fire incident in which an 81st A-10 pilot accidentally killed a Canadian soldier and injured dozens of others in Afghanistan illustrates the risk. U.S. and Canadian officers are investigating the cause.
The October press release said the transmission delay could also expose pilots to ground threats.
“The extra synchronization time also means the pilot remains exposed to air and ground threats that affect the war fighter’s ability to ensure friendly forces are out of harm’s way,” it said.
Air Force officials said they are confident they will get the money needed to replace the radios, but last month’s release was part of an effort to be “proactive” in asking for the funding.
While Henry said the older radios could put pilots and ground forces at greater risk, he added, “I think it is somewhat of a mischaracterization to say that folks are at risk right now and they’re going to die.”
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