Starting from Oct. 13. Polish Powidz AB (33rd Airlift Base) has hosted US airlift aviation crews flying the C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Within the framework of Rotation 18-1, the second one held this year, almost 130 US airmen have taken part in the joint training with four USAF and two Polish Air Force C-130 airlifters. On Nov. 8, we visited Powdiz during the rotation’s media day to get some insights into the American Deployment.

During the Detachment, two missions a day were flown – one at night and one during the day, lasting on average 3 hours. The sorties were preceded by many hours of preparations and two-hour briefing, as explained by the 33rd Airlift Base’s spokeswoman, Cpt. Martyna Fedro Samojedny.

The flying took place in any weather conditions that would make it possible to complete the mission, all over the territory of Poland.

The training involved 2 C-130H airframes of the 96th Airlift Squadron 934th Airlift wing, hailing from Minneapolis, two C-130J airframes of the 37th Airlift Squadron of the 86th Airlift Wing hailing from Ramstein and two C-130E aircraft stationed locally, at the 33rd Airlift Base of the Polish Air Force. Furthermore, the training also involved more Polish units, including the 1st Airlift Wing, 2nd Tactical Aviation Wing and the 6th Airborne Brigade.

The missions included formation flying, cargo and paratrooper drops, grass strip operations, fighter engagements, NVGs and low-level training.

The whole deployment allowed the Poles to gather new, invaluable experiences, as the Polish staff also had an opportunity to polish its language skills. Moreover, the operation allowed the involved parties to unify and standardize the operational procedures, through joint planning of the missions.

Images: Jacek Siminski and Witosław Stachowiak

Recorded from the cockpit of a 146th Airlift Wing’s C-130J on Aug. 22, 2013, at 5.50PM, the following video provides a stunning view of California’s Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park from the California Air National Guard‘s firefighter pilot’s point of view.

The C-130J equipped with MAFFS (Modular Airborne FireFighting System) hence the callsign MAFFS 6 is “vectored” by an operator on the ground to airdrop the fire retardant onto a specific place more or less in the same way an attack plane is described the target to hit with its bombs by a JTAC (Joint Terminal Air Controller).

Noteworthy, as MAFFS 6 slows down to 150 Kts to perform the drop of the retardant you can clearly hear the computer in the background warning about the landing gear: since the aircraft is flying at low altitude and speed, the system assumes that it is about to land and reminds the aircrew to extend the landing gear.

H/T to Bjorn Broten and Shawn Piess for the heads-up

 

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Taken by The Aviationist’s Tony Lovelock on Dec. 15 the following pictures depict the three Iraqi Air Force C-130Js during the stopover at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, UK, on their historical delivery flight from Marietta, Georgia, to Iraq via Quonset Point, St Johns.

YI-305 was the first plane to depart the Scottish airport in pretty bad weather at 09.00 LT, followed by the second, YU-304 at 09.30 and finally the third, YI-306 at 10.00.

Image credit: Tony Lovelock

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On Dec. 12, an acceptance ceremony held at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Georgia, facility, celebrated the delivery of the first three C-130J for the Iraqi Air Force.

Six planes, purchased through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, will be delivered to Iraq, whose Air Force will use them for intra-theater support and humanitarian relief operations.

The first three aircraft are expected to arrive in Iraq next week. They will depart from Quonset Air National Guard Base, in North Kingstown, where Rhode Island Air National Guard 143rd Airlift Wing (USAF’s first and longest serving C-130J Unit) has trained the first Iraqi pilots and maintenance crews in anticipation of the delivery.

The first three cargos where monitored as they flew to Quonset ANGB flying with a standard U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command “Reach” callsign.

The following audio lets you hear Reach 325, C-130J carrying registration YI-304 calling Andrews Global (Air Force HF Global Communication System) for radio checks.

listen to ‘Reach325 C-130j Iraqi Air Force’ on Audioboo

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The Senate Armed Services Committee has just released a year long report in the use of counterfeit parts in military equipment whose findings are simply shocking.

The report unveils the presence of some 1,800 cases of fake parts (worth more than a million components) than a in SH-60B helicopters and in C-130J and C-27J cargo planes as well as the US Navy’s P-8 Poseidon.

The report highlighted that more than 70 percent of the counterfeit parts were traced back to China, but it blamed weaknesses in the U.S. supply chain, and China’s failure to curb the counterfeit parts manufacturers.

U.S. servicemen rely on a multitude of sophisticated electronic parts found in all sorts of systems, from GPS to Night Vision equipment and these counterfeit parts have not passed through the rigorous testing that the real parts have.

Indeed, whilst the report laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Chinese it said: “U.S authorities and contract companies contributed to the vulnerabilities of the defense supply chain by not detecting the fake parts or routinely failing to report suspected counterfeiting to the military.”

The report did however praise the National Defence Authorization Act, signed into law on Dec 31, 2011, by President Barack Obama, whose intention is to stop the flood of these counterfeit parts into the U.S. even by reducing sourcing from unknown supplier.

Just think to what would happen if China tried to intentionally flood the U.S. military with counterfeit parts: a failure could put the lives of U.S. service personnel in danger at the wrong moment both in combat and during normal training activities.

That’s why integrity of the supply chain must be considered a national security matter.

Image credit: U.S. Navy