A Royal Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130J transport conducted an almost 6h mission around Afghanistan on 8 April in support of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and Flight International was aboard.

The UK’s four C-130J/Ks in Afghanistan are required to fly a combined total of 15 flight hours a week in support of the multinational ISAF mission. After operating a routine 1h transport flight between Kandahar airfield and Kabul, our aircraft assumed the call sign ISAF 74 and left the Afghan capital to fly a typical mission in support of coalition forces at bases in Meymaneh, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat.

 C-130 Afghan W445
The RAF has three C-130Js in the Afghan theatre to support national and NATO activities
With a team of Swedish medics and some cargo aboard for delivery to Mazar-e-Sharif, our aircraft conducted a more than 1h flight at medium level before descending for a hard landing on a short gravel strip at Meymaneh, which plays host to a Norwegian provincial reconstruction team. In addition to collecting several Norwegian personnel for transfer to Kabul, our aircraft was rapidly reconfigured to take a stretcher carrying a child who was being evacuated to hospital in Kabul with his father after suffering a severe head injury. The use of a coalition transport in such cases is typical of the “hearts and minds” approach being widely employed in Afghanistan to gain the backing of the local population. At each of our destinations, the C-130’s engines continued running while on the ground and we were stationary for no more than 20min.

After a 45min flight to Mazar-e-Sharif we had expected to depart for Konduz, but were retasked to transport ISAF commander Italian army Lt Gen Mauro Del Vecchio and other Italian personnel to Herat on a more than 1h sortie, before completing a 90min return leg to Kabul to deliver the rest of our passengers.

Afghanistan’s ongoing reconstruction includes the improvement of infrastructure such as runways and civilian terminals to support operations of national carriers including Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air, in addition to military aircraft and other NATO and UN assets. However, aircrews continue to voice concerns over deconfliction issues, with hand-over procedures between controllers occasionally resulting in proximity incidents.

Source: Flight International