Page 105 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
AIRPOWER 105
(DSU2020) and Force Structure Plan (FSP2020) have al- located enough importance to airlift capability to cope with rapidly-changing events.
KABUL AIRLIFT
While ADM’s questions to Defence concerning the impact of the Kabul Airlift on short and long-term fleet planning have so far gone unanswered, ADF sources have provided some details of the operation.
The RAAF’s first flight into Kabul’s Hamid Karzai In- ternational Airport was operated by a C-130J-30 Hercu- les from 37 Sqn on the night of 17 August, evacuating an initial load of 26 people including Australian citizens and Afghan nationals.
Over a nine-day period between August 18 – 26 the five RAAF Air Mobility Group aircraft and personnel per- formed more than 30 flights and, in co-ordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), evacu- ated a total of 4,100 people from Kabul.
While the C-17As and C-130J-30s flew into Kabul to com- plete the airlift operations, the single KC-30A flew eight air-to-air refuelling (AAR) missions in support of coalition
fighter aircraft that were providing cover. Over the course of the eight missions, the force-enabling KC-30A delivered around 375,000 pounds (170 tonnes) of fuel to patrolling fighter jets. For a more detailed look at the KC-30As capa- bilities, see the separate story in this issue of ADM.
AIR MOBILITY GROUP AT A GLANCE
Headquartered at Richmond, the RAAF’s Air Mobility Group (AMG) currently has five operational flying squad- rons, split between 84 and 86 Wings at Richmond and Am- berley respectively. Aside from the C-130J-30, C-17A and KC-30A, the AMG is responsible for the RAAF’s ten Leon- ardo C-27J Spartan light tactical airlifters and a squadron of Special Purpose Aircraft, made up of two Boeing 737- BBJs and three Dassault Falcon 7X aircraft, for the VIP transportation role.
C-17A GLOBEMASTER III
Eight C-17As are operated by 36 Sqn at Amberley and have provided the ADF’s strategic airlift capability since the first entered service in late 2006.
Only four aircraft were initially acquired, but the large transport’s versatility soon proved indispensable and has meant that a further four have subsequently been acquired, in batches of one, one and two aircraft each. The final pair are among the last handful of C-17As to be built by Boeing and had been in storage in the US since rolling off the pro- duction line in Long Beach, California in 2014. The two aircraft were in a batch of ten ‘white tail’ aircraft built in anticipation of further contracts and others in this batch were later acquired by Canada, India and Qatar.
The eight RAAF aircraft are in high demand and the fleet supported the ADF air bridge operations to the Middle East for many years as well as Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) missions across Australia and the region.
The C-17A fleet flew domestic operations in support of Op- eration Bushfire Assist in 2019 and 2020 and so far in 2021
LEFT: The first RAAF C-130J-30 Hercules landed at Hamid Karzai International Airport overnight and departed at around 0100 local time on 18 August 2021
ABOVE: The RAAF has 12 C-130J-30 Hercules medium airlifters with 37 Sqn, based at Richmond
DEFENCE
NIGEL PITTAWAY