1/17/2024 0 Comments C17 cockpit nightThat time period has since been shortened to five days, he said. The first Globemaster crew qualified in 10 days. The Night Operations Team started five NVG training programs, Smith said. “The idea was to see if we could introduce NVG operations into the ‘slick’ (non-special operations airlift) community.” “It became evident that we had to rule the night,” he said. The AMC formed a team to begin training C-17 crews in night operations in the fall of 2001, just before the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, Smith explained. Reggie Smith, chief of the AMC’s Tactical Airlift Branch for C-17s and C-130s. “If they can’t see you, they can’t shoot you down,” said Air Force Maj. The goggles are used particularly in taking off and landing at night, without any other form of lighting, to minimize the threat from enemy ground fire. To operate at night, the C-17 crews wore binocular-style AN/AVS-9 (F4949 Series) NVGs, produced by ITT Industries Night Vision, of Roanoke, Va. “But we’re pretty sure that was coalition fire.” “My co-pilot saw some flares off to the south,” Meloeny said. “Of course, that made it more difficult for us to see our leaders,” he said.”Īs it turned out, the crews saw little sign of Iraqi forces. The aircraft turned down their lights as much as possible to make it harder for them to be seen by enemy ground forces, Meloeny said. ![]() ![]() It wasn’t until we were in-flight that the final call was made.” We had a number of different forecasters telling us different things. “There were huge sand storms coming from the south. “We needed to be able to see the drop zone,” he said. Matt Meloeny, chief of standardization and evaluation for the 62nd Air Wing’s 8th Airlift Squadron, at McChord. The airdrop “put 1,000 paratroopers on target, on time, despite the weather,” explained Air Force Capt. and McChord Air Force Base, Wash., worked closely with planners from the Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., and the U.S. The C-17 has been used many times in airborne training missions and was instrumental in Afghanistan in humanitarian airdrops of food rations, but this was the first time the Globemaster was used as a platform to insert paratroopers during combat, officials said.Īircraft and aircrews from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. Transportation Command and the Air Mobility Command, in a published statement. “This is a historic milestone in the evolution of the C-17,” said Air Force Gen. The drop included about 20 airmen who, once they hit the ground, rapidly prepared the airfield to be used by U.S. The eight-hour nighttime flight from Italy’s Aviano Air Base was the first time that the Globemaster was used to insert paratroopers during combat. forces when neighboring Turkey refused to allow them to pass through its territory. Within a few days, a full brigade-the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vincenza, Italy-was on the ground in the Kurdish-controlled region, which had been denied to U.S. In April 2003, in one of the largest airborne operations since Normandy, C-17s dropped more than 1,000 paratroopers at night into Northern Iraq to seize an enemy airfield. It was the first-ever C-17 combat dirt landing using night-vision goggles. In November 2001, C-17s landed in the dark on a dirt runway at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan, delivering 481 troops and 970 short tons of equipment over eight days. 37) The tactic has produced some spectacular successes, officials said. ![]() For that mission, the C-17 became the platform of choice. They have been supplemented, when necessary, by C-5 Galaxy and C-141 Starlifter crews from the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command.Īs demands for their services grew, however, Air Force leaders decided to experiment with the movement of much larger numbers of forces and equipment at night. Special Operations Command, usually in connection with relatively small, clandestine assignments. Traditionally, this dangerous mission has been conducted mainly by MC-130 Combat Talon aircrews of the U.S. ![]() Air Force has begun training C-17 Globemaster transport crews to fly airlift operations in the dark of night, without artificial lighting. To speed troops and supplies into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.
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