British SAS rescue trapped troops - Land a C-130 Hercules in the desert in total darkness.

UK Daily Mail ^ | 22 Aug 2021 | Marc Nichol

[Chad C. Mulligan]

A team of Special Air Service soldiers who were surrounded by Taliban hordes in Kandahar have been rescued in a dramatic desert operation.

Around 20 elite SAS troops were left stranded in the province hundreds of miles from friendly forces when the militants took over.

As enemy fighters closed in they sent an SOS request to Special Forces bosses back in Britain calling for immediate extraction.

But they could not use Kandahar airfield – once home to 26,000 international troops at the height of the military campaign – because it had already been overrun by Taliban. So the SAS soldiers fought their way to a secret desert location where they went into hiding. The coordinates of the location were then relayed back to Special Forces headquarters in a series of coded messages.

On Wednesday night online flight trackers picked up a UK Hercules transport aircraft flying over the Gulf, until it turned off its Identification Friend or Foe sensors. This ensured flight radars could not follow its route towards the area of desert scrub which SAS troops had identified as a possible landing strip.

The aircraft, from the RAF's Special Forces wing, made a dramatic landing in the dead of night with the crew wearing digital night-vision goggles.

A source said: 'It was a very hush, hush mission. Kandahar had fallen to the Taliban on Friday and the guys were down there for five days after that. The enemy were rampant and killing a lot of Afghan Special Forces whom the SAS had been working with. So it was a very urgent mission.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Damn! Is there ANYTHING the Herky-Bird can't do?

[spetznaz]

The SAS (and its sister unit, SBS), are absolutely top-notch.

[MrLucky1966]

Damn! Is there ANYTHING the Herky-Bird can't do?

I find it interesting that the British and French are upstaging us in the rescue of their, and our (I've heard stories where the Brits and French even rescued Americans), people. The C-130 is one good plane, it has been in production since the mid 1950's. My father joined the Army in 1954, a week after he turned 17 and after basic, was stationed in South Korea and Japan. He went over by troopship but he flew home on one of the first C-130's. He told me they were very noisy inside.

[JD_UTDallas]

Oh it gets better the Herc can do Navy ops if they really needed too. Check this out.

https://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp

“At 85,000 pounds, the KC-130F came to a complete stop within 267 feet, about twice the aircraft’s wing span! The Navy was delighted to discover that even with a maximum payload, the plane used only 745 feet for takeoff and 460 feet for landing roll.”

“. “The last landing I participated in, we touched down about 150 feet from the end, stopped in 270 feet more and launched from that position, using what was left of the deck. We still had a couple hundred feet left when we lifted off. Admiral Brown was flabbergasted.””

Simply amazing American engineering. I have personally landed in a Herc on nothing but 12” scrub brush and desert varnish. Not an unimproved dirt Strip we landed on an unprepared surface as in not altered by man it was raw desert floor they didn’t even come to a full stop we left the rear ramp in a hurry and they were airborne again in 90 seconds from touchdown in what seemed an impossibly short distance in front of us.

[minnesota_bound]

Meanwhile.... thousands of Americans are stranded while Biden is on vacation and Harris is on vacation and Pelosi is at a winery fundraising and our military leaders are saying to those stranded that you are on your own. The State dept wanted them to pay $2,000 per person but after much backlash has suspended the charge. More Afgans have been flown back to America then Americans!

[gundog]

• Lance Cpl. Bryan P. Bertrand, 23, of Coos Bay, Ore. Bertrand could have been home a month ago, but volunteered for another tour of duty as flight navigator. He recently wrote his parents that he had saved enough money to buy an electric guitar. He was among the seven who died on the KC-130 that crashed on Jan. 9, 2002 in Pakistan.

An early fatality of the war, a hometown kid. Apparently the plane had problems in low temps at high altitude.

[Feckless]

A lot of other countries use the C-160, the C-130’s little brother. Smaller, with 2 engines, it is very versatile. Rode in a French C-160 in the MFO, ‘85/’86.

[New Perspective]

He went over by troopship but he flew home on one of the first C-130's. He told me they were very noisy inside.

Flew from Hawaii to Alameda in a C-130, long and noisy but what a gorgeous view.

[bgill]

Welcome to new Amerika.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

digital night-vision goggles

 

Those are soooo much nicer on so many levels - moving away from the tubes. Lighter, sturdier, more adjustment flexibility, more performance bang with less complication.