I have to presume that the place where they have landed is away from helicopter range from any friendly territory (Turkey not considered friendly), is why they use parachutes instead. It will be interesting how they are going to do this. Everything have to be airlifted. how many M-1s can a C-17 carry?One or at most two? How many heavy transport aircraft does the US have?Originally posted by Viper52:They landed in friendly Kurdish held territory, approx 40km from the nearest Iraqi held area. The airfield they "seized" was also in a Kurdish held area.
The use of paratroops in this instance was due to Turkey not allowing the use of it's land and airspace. Hence to open the second front the main bulk of troops and all their equipment had to be flown in, which requires an airfield to be seized. And they needed to drop the paratroops to seize that.
wondering, how wide and how long is the airstrip??? Can the Galaxy land there?Originally posted by spencer99:I have to presume that the place where they have landed is away from helicopter range from any friendly territory (Turkey not considered friendly), is why they use parachutes instead. It will be interesting how they are going to do this. Everything have to be airlifted. how many M-1s can a C-17 carry?One or at most two? How many heavy transport aircraft does the US have?
I don't think they could fight it out with the Iraqi in a conventional manner. Too much hardware to airlift. Most probably will use the local Kurdish fighters to fight the Iraqis with the US providing air cover intel and occassionally some Ground support.
That means the troops are only there to secure the airfield.
The US probably find the going too tough down south and want Saddam to divert some of his better troops up north.
Bashur 6,700 ftOriginally posted by laser51088:wondering, how wide and how long is the airstrip??? Can the Galaxy land there?
AT RHEIN-MAIN, the airlift to Afghanistan honed the C-17 crews into a more capable tactical force, with the skills to operate into a combat zone using airfields with short, narrow and decaying runways. These skills may prove useful should there be a conflict with Iraq. While airfields being used in the military buildup are rated "low risk" at the moment, that could change "in a heartbeat," so the airlift crews must guard against complacency.HEAVY LIFT AS WAR LOOMS Mar 10 issue AWST
The C-17 is a cross between a strategic airlifter designed for transoceanic flights and a tactical airlifter that can operate into austere airfields. Ideas on how to employ it are still evolving, but the mindset of C-17 aircrews has changed during the past year.
"We are really getting good at . . . thinking like C-130 guys," said Lt. Col. Creighton Cook, deputy for operations with the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Sqdn. at Rhein-Main.
Some flights into Afghanistan have been fired on, and the airfields there are still considered "medium" to "high risk" due to the combination of high terrain, high threat levels, long duty days, and the frequent use of night-vision goggles to make blackout landings. Even the ground crews unloading the planes use NVGs. Before Sept. 11, 2001, none of the aircrews assigned to the C-17 were qualified to fly approaches with NVGs; now all of the active-duty crews from Charleston and McChord are trained, and the reserves are in the process of being trained.
The 817th has perfected the C-17 tactics and procedures, including a variety of altitudes, speeds and bank angles to defeat potential threats. The squadron has also developed a robust intelligence capability to keep crews informed about the latest threats. One 817th leader involved in tactics said, "We've all seen that these guys hate us and want to kill us, so if you give them an easy target you are setting yourself up. You can never eliminate [the threat], but you can minimize it, and that is what we are trying to do."
they might be there to prevent tensions of kurds and turks from rising out of control too.Originally posted by Viper52:They landed in friendly Kurdish held territory, approx 40km from the nearest Iraqi held area. The airfield they "seized" was also in a Kurdish held area.
The use of paratroops in this instance was due to Turkey not allowing the use of it's land and airspace. Hence to open the second front the main bulk of troops and all their equipment had to be flown in, which requires an airfield to be seized. And they needed to drop the paratroops to seize that.
The US, so little troops so many roles, warrior, aid worker nowOriginally posted by cavsg:they might be there to prevent tensions of kurds and turks from rising out of control too.