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Fuelling
the coalition mission
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A
French Mirage takes on fuel from an Australian Air Force 707
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The
flight over mountains in Afghanistan presents a spectacular
view.
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THERE
is more to providing ground troops in Operation Enduring Freedom
with vital air support than meets the eye.
Afghanistan’s geographic location means that in order to conduct
sorties over the Area of Operations (AO), fighter jets need several
refuelling opportunities along the way.
The coalition fighter pilots on station over Afghanistan need to
know that they will have enough fuel for the mission and to return
home.
Air Force 707 mid-air refueller aircraft from No. 84 Wing Detachment
have obliged more than 500 such pilots with almost 5 million pounds
of fuel.
“At some stage the day prior you get advised what time the
mission will occur,” a detachment pilot said.
“Sometimes the Air Tasking Order hasn’t come out the night
before. But once it does the Operations Officer will have to ring
around and wake up the crew. Once we arrive we have an intelligence
brief and we get weapons issued.”
From there the Ganci Operations Centre provides a brief on the mission
for the day as well as the latest weather conditions.
Once in the aircraft, all checks are completed and the mission brief
is given half an hour before doors close.
Take-off out of Manas needs an extra orbit to gain height because
of the mountains to the south. It’s about an hour-and-a-half
to the Afghanistan border and from there pilots transit to the operating
area.
Once the aircraft enters the working area it contacts AW&Cs
on a set frequency to confirm all details of the plan, after which
the tanker is “on station”, which can be the case for
several hours.
“We can have varying missions, whether we refuel the same fighters
up to three times or we refuel different fighters. They can refuel
on the way in or they can refuel on the way out,” the pilot
said.
Once a complete refuel has finished, the 707 crews bring the hoses
in and complete a final checklist.
They then contact higher headquarters and get permission to return
to base.
“If we have any spare fuel they may elect to have us do something
with that.”
Having been given permission to return home, the refuellers transit
the AO back to the boundary.
After landing, they sign off the jet, hand it over to maintenance
and advise them of any problems.
This is followed by a mission debrief and an intelligence debrief.
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