Aircraft

NATO'S eyes over Afghanistan

By Craig Hoyle

While the Eurofighter is now delivering its first air defence duties for Germany, the nation's air force is already fully supporting the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"We have been asked by NATO to fulfil a reconnaissance requirement, and we do this right now with our [Panavia] Tornado aircraft," says German air force chief of staff Lt Gen Klaus-Peter Stieglitz, referring to a six-aircraft deployment at Mazar e-Sharif since April 2007.

"The mandate for this commitment goes until mid-October. Then we will have to see how the NATO requirement would or could be extended, how the [German] government will decide, and whether parliament will allow us to go beyond this mandate." However, he notes: "We are prepared from a Luftwaffe point of view to stay longer."

But asked whether the air force could stage strike missions, Stieglitz says "There is no requirement right now to go beyond reconnaissance."

©German air force Stieglitz: commited to help

The German air force also has eight C160 Transall transports permanently stationed at Termez air base in Uzbekistan. "But our plan is by August to deploy these aircraft also into Mazar e-Sharif," where they will join several German army Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopters already at the base, says Stieglitz.

"This will be the largest transport commitment for ISAF within Afghanistan," he notes. "We are providing more than half of the airlift capability: that is the Luftwaffe commitment."

Germany's Transalls will be replaced by 60 Airbus Military A400Ms, with its first due in the autumn of 2010.

A six-month A400M programme delay announced by EADS last year had no impact on German plans, but Stieglitz says of the possibility of a further six-month slippage: "We are standing by for further developments on how the aircraft will be delivered. If it's plus six months then we could basically live with this kind of delay. It's no big deal for the Luftwaffe yet."