Introducing Harrier Jets In Afghan Campaign Emphasizes Air-To-Ground Missions

European Stars and Stripes | October 25, 2002 | Lisa Burgess

[Stand Watch Listen]

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — The Marines are causing quite a stir in Afghanistan.

Six Harriers from Marine Harrier Squadron VMA-513 — the "Nightmares," to be precise — began arriving at Bagram from their home base at Yuma Marine Station, Ariz., over the weekend, with the last two landing on Monday.

And when the gray fighter jets started screaming through the brilliant blue sky, everything else halted. Merchants stopped their dickering, while children dropped their schoolbags to point, eyes wide with awe.

Not all of the VMA-513’s Harriers are in Afghanistan. The squadron has 16 aircraft, and the other jets are out with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, VMA-513 commander Lt. Col. Jim Dixon said Wednesday.

The Harriers have taken their place on the flight line alongside eight Air Force A-10s from Davis Monthan Air Base in Tucson, Ariz., "which is right down the road from Yuma," Dixon said. "We’re neighbors."

Until the Harriers arrived, the A-10s were the only fighter jets stationed in Afghanistan, although planners at U.S. Central Command — the Tampa, Fla., regional command that is responsible for Operation Enduring Freedom — have placed Air Force fighter jets at K-2, a U.S. base in Uzbekistan, and at other locations in Central Asia.

Meanwhile, Navy carriers and Marine Expeditionary Units have been stationed in the Arabian Sea, with jets prepared to respond to requests for close air support from U.S. commanders in Afghanistan.

The A-10s have been busy. Military officials don’t talk about specific missions, but the aircraft known as the Warthog take off and land at all hours of the day and night.

So, it’s not surprising that the A-10 pilots welcomed the Marine pilots with open arms.

"They’ve been pulling a really heavy [mission] load," Dixon said.

The Harriers and A-10s have similar missions: The Marine jet is designed for air-to-ground combat, while the Warthog is the only jet in the Air Force’s inventory whose primary mission is close air support.

Harriers are only rarely "forward-stationed" — positioned inside a foreign country on deployments, instead of ships. Most of the time, deployed Harriers are part of a MEU. The jets can take off and land vertically and hover so that they can be easily accommodated aboard MEU ships, which are much smaller than aircraft carriers.

U.S. military commanders decided to move the Harriers to Bagram because of a shift in Operation Enduring Freedom’s air support requirements over the summer.

"The face of the war in Afghanistan has changed," Col. Roger King, spokesman for U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, said Wednesday. "The last time naval air support was putting rounds on target [in Afghanistan] was some time in September."

With the Taliban out of power and al-Qaida fighters either gone or well hidden, the big battles for control of Afghanistan are done, King said.

U.S. troops are now focusing their combat missions on smaller areas, principally Afghanistan’s southeast border with Pakistan, and long-range air support from a carrier is "not needed so much," King said.

The nature of the U.S. military’s mission in Afghanistan is also revealed in the kinds of armaments Dixon is choosing to leave behind when his Harriers fly: Sidewinder missiles, which are used in air-to-air combat.

"There’s no air threat here," he said.

Instead, Dixon’s Harriers will hit the skies loaded with various mixes of its no-nonsense ground attack weapons. Those include the GAU-12 25 mm five-barrel Gatling gun which can fire 3,600 rounds per minute, 5-inch rockets, 2.75-inch rockets, Mark-80 series munitions, cluster munitions, and GBU-12 and -16 laser-guided 500-pound "smart" bombs.

Some of the Harriers also have "targeting pods" — avionics that include television cameras, laser designators and infrared "pointers" that tell smart weapons exactly where the enemy is.

Another reason the A-10 squadron had Bagram to itself for so long while Navy ships provided a platform for other jets was that Bagram’s airfield was in such poor shape that "in May less than one quarter was usable — just half the length and width," King said.

With so little of the airfield in decent shape and much of it needed for helicopters and Force transports coming in and out every day, there wasn’t room for the Marine contingent.

But airfield improvements have been a top priority for Army engineers and a group of about 80 engineers from the Italian Army who spent the spring and summer repairing and reinforcing the runway, clearing mines from surrounding fields, improving ramp space and constructing maintenance shelters.

By early October, the airfield was ready for the Harriers, although the runway is still not as sturdy as those at standard U.S. military airfields. Because the runway’s surface is less than ideal, and because Bagram is at 5,000 feet above sea level, Harrier pilots are not able to perform one of the jet’s most amazing stunts: vertical takeoffs and landings, Dixon said.

The runway may be iffy, but Bagram’s accomodations sure beat living on a ship, according to VMA-513 maintenance crew members.

"It's a lot better than I expected here," said Lance Cpl. Derek Estrada, a Pittsburg, Calif., native who works loading ordance on the Harriers. "We actually have real showers. I was thinking we’re going to be sleeping in the dirt and taking showers out of our canteens."

As a matter of fact, it is almost like home, according to Lance Cpl. Peter Bushby, an ordnance loader.

"It looks just like Yuma, only at 5,000 feet" elevation, he said.

[E Rocc]

I'm suprised that the Harriers weren't there already, it seems like their natural battle.

I'm not suprised that the Warthogs have done so well. They've become the "Energizer Bunnies" of the Air Force....going and going and going. Even before Desert Storm some of the AF brass were trying to phase them out, they weren't even going to take them to Saudi until the Army bitched up a storm about close air support. The 10s were among the top performers in the Gulf....not suprising since they were designed to fight an armor heavy army with mostly Soviet equipment.

Come to think of it, could the Hogs in Afghanistan be about to head a little bit to the west?

-Eric

[Eric in the Ozarks]

An Air force pal once said the Marines were the only Americans crazy enough to fly Harriers (they are difficult to fly and crash more often than other fighters).

[Stand Watch Listen]

Related Article

Harriers To Join A-10s At Bagram
Source: European Stars and Stripes; Published: October 23, 2002;Author: Lisa Burgess