F e a t u r e s
personnel had to re-familiarise themselves with the air conditioning on-off switch!
Following a few days on the ground to acclimatise and refresh ourselves on operational procedures, we were soon ready to launch the first mission. The pre- flight procedures for all operational flying are, out of necessity, more involved than peace-time flying. The list of ‘what ifs?’ is somewhat longer! With so many daily air movements the planning process of operating over Afghanistan is incredibly complex. Thankfully most of this task is undertaken by a separate planning cell that simply passes to each air asset details of where to be and at what times! Their hard and often unrecognised work is a key part to maintaining a safe and yet effective aerial presence in theatre.
On Station, On Time Following the detailed crew brief we walked to the aircraft for the first sortie. With the Sentinel now laden with fuel, equipment and crew of 5 it was operating at its maximum weight. The usual sprightly performance of the Sentinel – at light-weights, some say it can out-climb a Hawk – was diminished by
the extra weight and the warmer climate. This made the climb to our cruising altitude of over 40,000ft a bit more of a struggle. The transit into theatre was straightforward.
Once on station the mission crew were soon hard at work collecting and then processing the radar imagery. The Sentinel R1, in RAF terms a very modern aircraft, is very good at looking after its systems without the need for constant pilot intervention. Our main job on the flightdeck was monitoring the busy communications with several different agencies including air traffic and tactical networks. The fuel plan was also regularly updated to provide an accurate off-task time, both for the mission crew and the ground station operators. The rather limited galley facilities on the Sentinel were adequate to feed and water the crew throughout the mission. Thankfully, from a fitness point of view, the world’s smallest oven limits the amount of food that a crew of five can prepare and then eat!
After several hours on station we headed for home on the long transit back. The rear crew were busy with the management of all the data that has been collected and
continued to downlink this information to the ground station in theatre.
The mission had gone to plan. Following a lengthy debrief, and after a 14-hour working day the crew retired to the bar for a well earned drink or two. The groundcrew busied themselves with the essential work of refuelling the aircraft and servicing it prior to its next mission. As our confidence and familiarity grew, we were able to provide progressively longer amounts of valuable collection time on-task.
Battlefield Approval
Not only was the deployment a success from a Squadron perspective, but the proof was in the very positive feedback we received from our ‘customers’. The hard work by all of those concerned in the procurement, development, introduction and running of the ASTOR system had, at last, been seen to pay dividends. Although there is still work to be done, ASTOR had completed its first operational deployment mission and had finally demonstrated its valuable contribution to the tactical commanders within the battlefield. The hard work had finally paid off.
www.raf-families-federation.org.uk
Spring 2009
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