The UK’s £1bn Afghanistan operation will involve at least 24 aircraft, including a joint helicopter force. Is it ready?
Eighteen months after achieving initial operating capability, the UK’s Westland/Boeing Apache AH1 attack helicopter is to face its toughest test, with eight of the aircraft to be deployed to southern Afghanistan within the next few months.
To spearhead a 3,300-strong UK force in Helmand province under an expansion to its Operation Herrick activities, the Apache will be used as a deterrent and as a reconnaissance asset by using its Longbow fire-control radar during force protection missions, the Army Air Corps (AAC) says.
The primary purpose of the UK’s three-year, £1 billion ($1.7 billion) commitment will be to enhance stability in southern Afghanistan as part of a wider effort by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which will fall under UK command between May 2006 and February 2007.
Some 9,000 ISAF troops are expected to be deployed to southern Afghanistan by mid-year, possibly including personnel and aircraft from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania and the USA. ISAF’s current strength in the country totals around 8,000 personnel from 36 nations.
An initial UK engineering presence of around 850 personnel will deploy to Helmand province next month supported by three Boeing Chinook HC2 transport helicopters from the Royal Air Force’s 18 Sqn, which late last year conducted humanitarian operations in the region after a major earthquake struck northern Pakistan.
This will be followed by the main force, which will for the first time include an air component to be co-ordinated by a joint-service command, initially to be led by Lt Col Richard Felton, commanding officer of the AAC’s 9 Regiment, which is to supply Joint Helicopter Force Afghanistan’s eight Apaches and four Westland Lynx AH7s.
The army assets will be supported in theatre by six Chinooks from the RAF’s 27 Sqn and six Lockheed Martin C-130 transports. To comprise around 430 personnel, the aviation unit will be headquartered in Kandahar, with a smaller command site to be established at Lashkar Gar in Helmand province.
All three helicopter types and around 3,000 personnel participated in the 12-day exercise Herrick Eagle, which concluded in the UK on 3 February. The manoeuvres, which included helicopters flying in joint packages at night without lights, replicated operations across a geographical area similar to Helmand province, which equates to the area from Newcastle in north-east England to Bristol in the south west.
Speaking during an air group demonstration conducted at the Copehill Down urban training village on Salisbury Plain on 27 January, Brig Ed Butler, commander of the UK’s 16 Air Assault Brigade, said: “Helmand is a new operating area, so we will be pathfinding. We will face a complex and diverse threat, but we can undertake the full range of operations.”
Joint Helicopter Force Afghanistan’s initial commitment will involve eight Apaches and 85 personnel from 9 Regiment’s 656 Sqn. Several of the aircraft will be deployed to a Gulf state next month by RAF Boeing C-17s or leased Antonov An-124s to participate in a two-week “confidence building” exercise that will include the UK’s first “hot and high” firings of the Apache’s AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, CRV-7 unguided rockets and cannon.
The exercise will also assess the aircraft’s ability to operate over terrain reaching an altitude of around 9,840ft (3,000m) above sea level – similar to that in the northern Helmand region. Noting the Apache’s firepower, Felton says: “It’s clearly not going to be there to hand out sweets. We can stretch to high intensity warfighting if it comes to it.”
The AAC says modifications to take place before the Apache’s operational deployment include the addition of beyond line-of-sight communications, internal auxiliary fuel tanks and the ability to use night-vision goggles.
The deployment of four Lynx represents more of a headache for the army, which concedes that Afghanistan’s summer temperatures of up to 40ºC (104°F) will severely restrict the type’s ability to provide transport, reconnaissance, command and control and fire-control services for between three and four months each year. The limitations underline the need for the UK Ministry of Defence to advance its planned Future Lynx programme, which will include replacing the AH7’s Rolls-Royce Gem engines (Flight International, 24-30 January).
It is doubtful that the RAF’s C-130s will receive a wing fire-inerting system ahead of their deployment, although the MoD has contracted Marshall Aerospace to study the possible modification. This was among the recommendations of a board of inquiry report into the downing of a 47 Sqn-operated aircraft that killed 10 personnel in Iraq early last year. The MoD points out, however, that its C-130s already have missile approach and radar warners, countermeasures equipment and flightdeck armour.
The final element of the aviation force will be provided by a battery of Lockheed Desert Hawk unmanned air vehicles to be operated by 32 Regiment, Royal Artillery. The UK Defence Procurement Agency confirms that Lockheed will receive a contract worth up to £5 million to provide additional hand-launched Desert Hawks and upgrade some of the UK’s inventory of the type.
Current plans do not call for the UK to maintain an offensive fixed-wing presence in Afghanistan, with its detachment of six BAE Systems Harrier GR7s scheduled to leave Kandahar airbase next June. It is also unclear whether ISAF personnel in southern Afghanistan will receive support from RAF fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft that have previously operated in the region. Such requirements could yet see the UK’s planned detachment of 24 aircraft grow into an ever more significant force.
CRAIG HOYLE / SALISBURY PLAIN
Source: Flight International
