A Sample Feature From Aviation News

Rhein-Main support for CENTCOM

Assistant Editor Dino Carrara reports on the massive airlift operation taking place from Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany in support of operations in Iraq.

Above: The ramp at Rhein-Main AB is filled with C-17s, as many as 26 have been on the ground at once on a few occasions. (Photo, Av News - Dino Carrara).

The US Rhein-Main Air Base on the south side of Frankfurt Airport was a vital staging post for aircraft transporting troops and equipment for the war in Iraq and has been handling on average 40 aircraft a day, 75% of which are Boeing C-17A Globemaster IIIs. In total, the resident 726th Air Mobility Squadron (AMS) handled 1,214 C-17 arrivals and departures in February and 1,516 in March- an Air Mobility Command (AMC) record for this aircraft type at one base. A record day of activity recently saw 104 arrivals and departures, 84 of which were C-17 movements. The busiest month thus far for passengers was February when 52,000 US personnel passed through, while for March the figure was 35,000. The majority of these arrived in US airliners on military charters. Commercial aircraft are also being used to carry cargo.

Globemaster III ops

The C-17 flights are being co-ordinated by the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron (EAS) which has been established at Rhein-Main. Approximately 60-70% of all C-17 missions to the Central Command (CENTCOM) region transit the base. If the cargo is munitions, explosives or hazardous material then the aircraft will have to use another base as these items are not allowed to be flown into Rhein-Main due to a long standing agreement with the German Government. The aircraft type will only visit another base in Europe if they have to pick up cargo or passengers from that location.

As well as the regular supply flights to Coalition bases in the Gulf, by the time of Aviation News’ visit on April 8 there had also been 100 flights into Iraqi airfields at night mostly using NVGs, probably including the former Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, supporting front-line troops. The first mission by the unit into hostile airspace was launched from Aviano AB in Italy on March 27, watched by millions of people on television, when 15 C-17s performed the type’s first combat airdrop at low-level of 1,000 paratroopers from the Vicenza-based 173rd Airborne Brigade into northern Iraq to open up a northern front in the campaign. Over the following five nights 62 missions were flown to airlift the rest of the Brigade and its equipment into Bashur airfield in northern Iraq. The first daytime flight took place on April 6.

The 817th EAS has been flying to approximately 50 points east of Germany with just over half of these in the Gulf region. It also maintains a detachment of one to two aircraft and four crews at Doha, Qatar, to give CENTCOM an in-theatre outsize cargo capability.

The 14th Airlift Squadron (AS) from Charleston AFB, SC, has been manning the Rhein-Main unit for three months, and was scheduled to hand over to the 8th AS from McChord AFB, Wash, on April 15. The 817th EAS has 240 aircrew assigned and 50 support staff. The former figure equates to 48 C-17 crews, which is up from the 30 assigned at the peak of Afghanistan operations. The number increased to 65 briefly for the paradrop mission. Currently, aircraft are being assigned an extra pilot and loadmaster to augment the normal team of three. A standard crew is permitted to work 16 hours under Air Force regulations, which includes time on the ground as well as in the air. The additional crew members are needed as flight time to Kuwait, for example, is seven to eight hours and with time spent on the ground in-theatre missions to the Gulf and back require a 20 to 24-hour duty day. Forty percent of crews are from Air Force Reserve Command, while there is also a small number of pilots from the Mississippi ANG who are gaining experience on the type as their unit is to receive C-17s next year.

Above: A C-17A lands at Frankfurt. (Photo, Av News - Dino Carrara).

Keeping the cargo moving

All AMC flights are planned and co-ordinated by the Tanker Airlift Control Center (TACC) at Scott AFB, Ill, which will liaise with the Air Mobility Division in charge of airspace in the CENTCOM area. The resulting flight schedule for the 817th EAS is downloaded at Rhein-Main from the command and control Global Decision Support System.

A typical C-17 resupply mission to the Gulf will start from Charleston AFB, which has been designated as a ‘stage’ for the type in the USA. One crew would fly the aircraft to another base in the US to pick up the load for the trip and then continue on to Rhein-Main. On arrival in Germany this crew is entitled to 14hr off duty before their next sortie. Lt Col Creighton Cook, Operations Officer of the 817th EAS, told Aviation News that to keep the load moving 80% of inbound cargo-laden C-17s flights through Rhein-Main are being ‘quick-turned’. Three hours and fifteen minutes is allotted to turnaround an aircraft with a fresh crew taking over to fly it down to the Middle East where it can be on the ground for between 1hr 30min to 3hr 15min, depending on if it has to take on fuel and the time taken to off-load the cargo. When flying into Iraqi airfields, dependent on the threat level, this has been reduced to 30min. Also, as many of the Coalition airfields are extremely busy, crews will try to depart as soon as possible to free up ramp space. Once the aircraft is back at Rhein-Main a new crew will take it to the US. No air-to-air refuelling (AAR) has been used on these missions as the tanker fleet was fully employed supporting other aircraft in the air war.

Not all C-17s return across the North Atlantic as 12 aircraft are kept at the base to transport equipment to the Middle East from US units based in Germany. Approximately ten flights a day, 40% of the total, have been for this purpose. This dozen are usually rotated after two weeks back to Charleston for maintenance. The 817th EAS also tries to keep many of the Extended Range variants of the C-17 at Rhein-Main for missions into Iraq as these aircraft are capable of unrefuelled round trips. The USAF currently has 101 of the type in service and all of them since the 71st aircraft has extra fuel tanks in the wings to hold an additional 60,000lb of fuel. All future deliveries will be similarly configured, with the previous examples already in service to be retrofitted.

Rhein-Main and the 817th EAS are likely to be busy for some time to come. During the conflict 95% of the C-17 flights were supporting the war fighting effort and the cessation of hostilities will end this flow of materiel. However, the unit will now probably be required to airlift in other equipment such as engineering units, for example, to help rebuild Iraq.

See next month’s issue for more on Rhein-Main.