#airlift special mission aircraft maintenance

[airambulance-india]

Ensuring Safety and Swift Medical Transport: The Best Air Ambulance Services in Dimapur

In emergencies, swift and reliable medical transportation can be a matter of life and death. This holds especially true in regions like Dimapur, where access to advanced medical facilities might be limited. In such critical moments, air ambulance services come to the forefront, offering rapid response and efficient medical care. Among the array of options available, discerning the best and most reliable air ambulance services is crucial. Let's delve into the realm of air ambulance services in Dimapur, focusing on safety, efficiency, and the paramount importance of timely medical assistance.

Understanding Air Ambulance Services: Air ambulance services play a vital role in providing emergency medical transportation via aircraft. These services are equipped with medical professionals, specialized equipment, and aircraft configured to accommodate patients in critical condition. From accident sites to remote locations, air ambulances ensure timely access to medical facilities, significantly reducing transit time and enhancing the chances of survival.

Air Ambulance Services in Dimapur: Dimapur, a bustling city in Nagaland, India, witnesses its share of medical emergencies. Amidst the need for rapid medical aid, several air ambulance services operate in the region, each vying to offer the best care and transportation. Among these, companies such as Air Ambulance India have emerged as pioneers in the field, providing reliable and efficient air ambulance services in Dimapur and beyond.

Reliability and Safety: When it comes to medical emergencies, reliability and safety are paramount concerns. The best air ambulance services in Dimapur prioritize these aspects, ensuring that every mission is executed with utmost care and precision. From experienced medical personnel to state-of-the-art aircraft maintenance, reliability and safety remain non-negotiable. Companies like Air Ambulance India adhere to stringent safety protocols and employ highly trained medical professionals to guarantee the well-being of patients during transit.

Swift Response and Timely Assistance: In critical situations, every moment counts. The best air ambulance services in Dimapur understand the importance of swift response and timely assistance. Equipped with a robust infrastructure and efficient coordination systems, these services ensure rapid deployment in emergencies. Whether it's airlifting patients from remote areas or facilitating inter-hospital transfers, promptness is ingrained in their operational ethos.

Advanced Medical Care: Apart from rapid transportation, air ambulance services in Dimapur excel in providing advanced medical care mid-flight. Equipped with life-saving equipment and staffed by skilled medical professionals, these services offer a level of medical intervention akin to that of a hospital's intensive care unit. From administering medications to performing critical procedures, every aspect of patient care is meticulously managed to optimize outcomes.

Accessibility and Outreach: Despite being located in a relatively remote region, Dimapur benefits from the accessibility offered by top-notch air ambulance services. These services bridge the gap between distant locations and advanced medical facilities, ensuring that no patient is deprived of timely medical care due to geographical constraints. Through strategic deployment and efficient logistical support, air ambulance services extend their outreach to even the most remote corners, reaffirming their commitment to saving lives.

Cost-Effectiveness and Affordability: While the quality of service remains paramount, cost-effectiveness is also a significant factor to consider. The best air ambulance services in Dimapur strike a balance between quality care and affordability, making critical medical transportation accessible to a broader demographic. Transparent pricing models, coupled with flexible payment options, ensure that financial constraints do not impede access to life-saving services.

Conclusion: In the realm of emergency medical transportation, air ambulance services in Dimapur stand as beacons of hope, offering rapid response, advanced medical care, and unwavering commitment to patient well-being. Among these, companies like Air Ambulance India shine brightly, embodying the principles of reliability, safety, and efficiency. As Dimapur continues to thrive, the presence of such stellar air ambulance services ensures that medical emergencies are met with swift and effective intervention, ultimately saving lives and fostering healthier communities.

[usafphantom2]

USAF wants to replicate the Heavy Airlift Wing model in Africa using C-130 Hercules aircraft

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/23/2022 - 17:42in Military

To help with humanitarian missions, the USAF plans to convene a collection of African nations to raise funds to buy a small number of Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft to compose a new shared fleet.

The idea will be a main point of discussion at a meeting of the African Air Forces Association (AAAF) in Senegal in October, says General James Hecker, commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, said Aviation Week. The group recently met at a lower level to talk about the idea before the heads of the air forces meet.

The C-130s will initially have to focus on the shared humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions of a central location on the continent. The aircraft can eventually help in counter-extremism operations, although the focus is on HADR, Hecker told Aviation Week in an interview. The AAAF includes 28 nations, which formally signed an agreement in 2015 for air capacity networks on the continent. Ten African nations already operate the aircraft, according to Aviation Week data.

The model is based on the Heavy Airlift Wing of Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC's HAW). The SAC is the first multinational initiative in the world that aims to maximize the strategic military air transport capacity through resource sharing and capacity grouping.

It is a conglomerate of twelve partner nations (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States), independent of international organizations and command structures.

HAW was officially activated on July 27, 2009 as part of the SAC program, which purchased and operates three C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft that fly under the national brands of Hungary.

The HAW is supervised by the SAC Steering Board, which manages its activities with the support of the NATO Airlift Management Program Office (NAM PO). The SAC defines the requirements and the NAM PO performs these requirements by providing most of the technical, logistical and training support for the U.S. C-17 fleet and its military and foreign military sales (FMS) programs, including maintenance of the C-17 that are contracted with Boeing.

Tags: AfricaMilitary AviationC-130J Super HerculesUSAF - United States Air Force / US Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[airmanisr]

Alenia C-27J "Spartan" Static Display by Robert Sullivan Via Flickr: The Maryland Air National Guard performed a tactical training mission and conducted a static display of the Alenia C-27J "Spartan" at the Wicomico Regional Airport in Salisbury, Md. Lockheed Martin C-130J "Super Hercules" prepares to leave the Maryland Air National Guard on September 13, 2011 at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Baltimore, MD while routine maintenance is performed on the new Alenia C-27J "Spartan". The 135th Airlift Group transitioned from the Lockheed Martin C-130J "Super Hercules" to the Alenia C-27J "Spartan", which was designed to meet Air Force requirements for a rugged, medium-sized air-land transport. The Alenia C-27J "Spartan" is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27A "Spartan" in U.S. service), equipped with the engines and various other systems also used on the larger Lockheed Martin C-130J "Super Hercules". In addition to the standard transport configuration, specialized variants of the C-27J have been developed for maritime patrol, search and rescue, C3 ISR (command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), fire support and electronic warfare and ground-attack missions. In 2007, the C-27J was selected as the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) for the United States military; these were produced in an international teaming arrangement under which L-3 Communications served as the prime contractor. In 2012, the United States Air Force (USAF) elected to retire the C-27J after only a short service life due to budget cuts; they were later reassigned to the U.S. Coast Guard and United States Special Operations Command. The C-27J has also been ordered by the military air units of Australia, Bulgaria, Chad, Italy, Greece, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Romania, Slovakia, and Zambia (on order).

[dogobar-blog]

The Exiles at Sea

Hey! This is a fanfic based on @wirelessshiba​‘s mercenary girls! This one is a prelude to the foundation of A.I.M. I may have taken too many creative liberties but I hope you enjoy it. I’m currently working on a follow up that introduces Leah and Gabby and explores how CLAW came into power. I’d like to eventually write stories for all the mousenaries so please stay tuned!

**********

Ela sipped on a mug of dark coffee as she stared out at the black sea. Official regulations prohibited food and drink inside the bridge, but these days rules were more akin to suggestions for the crew of The Supernova. After all, she reasoned, a rebel organization couldn't survive long without bending the rules from time to time. Her task for today however, was to oversee an operation that would lean more on the illegal side, even in the old world order. As the commander of the last remaining cruiser in the original U.S. Pacific Fleet, it was her duty to protect the nuclear powered aircraft carrier known as The Heart's Content. She was her one and only companion in this vast ocean they'd been stranded in since the CLAW takeover. And she was in desperate need of fuel. Her 25 years of expected service had lasted 40 with only minimal maintenance and a partial refueling.

Docking and bribing workers to look the other way may have worked last decade when The Supernova had to restock her own fuel rods, but security and surveillance had since been beefed up in ports around the globe. Their supply chain was restricted and getting close to land was a death sentence, so the only option now was to resort to piracy on the high seas.

The starry sky transitioned into a solid dark blue, much like the color of Ela's uniform, and the sun began to peek over the horizon. She warmed her hands on the side of her mug as she watched for ships. The icebreaker they were targeting should come into visual range any moment now. Maybe it was just the cold, but Ela had a bad feeling about this mission. Her reflection in the window scowled back at her as she went over everything that could go wrong for the hundredth time. She was confident in her soldiers' ability to carry out the operation, but she couldn't shake the feeling there was some detail she'd missed that could jeopardize the whole thing. They weren't being followed, the target was confirmed to be unarmed, and the simulations went well... What, then?

"Zvezda spotted at one o'clock."

Ela's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the navigator to her left. Sure enough, the red and black hull was just barely visible in the distance.

"Right on time. Lower speed and maintain course."

The mouse sat in her commander chair, eyes locked on the atomic icebreaker. It was one of the few civilian ships to use the same fuel that powered her fleet's turbines.

"This better be worth it," she thought to herself. It had taken over a year to set everything up just for this moment.

Two helicopters passed overhead on the starboard side. Ela grabbed a radio and hailed one of the pilots.

"This is Ela Novabay from The Supernova. You're early."

There was a pause before she received a response.

"We were eager to get this over with."

Typical pilot wisecrack. If only they could see Ela's expression, they'd know how serious she was.

"...Roger that. Let the troops know I'll be watching over them. Oh and no casualties."

"Affirmative, ma'am."

That was the only part from the briefing she felt the need to repeat. Thievery, they could get away with. But murder? It would spark an international incident and have the whole world gunning for them. Everyone involved in this mission knew their own lives were expendable but under no circumstances were any civilians allowed to die.

Ela sat back as the choppers circled around to the back of The Zvezda and tried to match its speed. Ropes carrying the handpicked operatives descended onto the deck. They were to first secure the ship by capturing the 62 crew on board, then make space for one of the helicopters to land and offload the engineers in charge of extracting and transporting the fuel. Before long, a flare shot into the sky and a voice with a thick Russian accent came through the radio.

"This is the civilian vessel Zvezda! We are currently under attack! Armed hostiles have boarded the ship! Please send help immediately!"

Ela smiled. She loved when things went according to plan. She picked up the radio and sent a low power transmission.

"The is Ela Novabay, commander of The Supernova. We recommend you surrender and comply with the demands of your invaders. Over."

The Russian voice responded, much angrier this time.

"You've got to be kidding!"

The navigator next to Ela couldn't help but giggle at their predicament. The commander allowed herself to relax a little, knowing the mission was proceeding smoothly and that they would be long gone before a rescue ship arrived.

Suddenly there was a commotion coming from the radio. Grunting, sounds of a struggle, and finally a gunshot. Ela immediately sat back up and pushed the transmit button.

"Alpha team, come in! What the hell is going on?"

It took several minutes for a response to come through.

"Alpha Two here. We had a situation but it's clear now."

"What kind of situation?" Ela asked through gritted teeth.

"The captain was carrying a pistol, ma'am. He shot at Alpha One but her vest negated the damage. We've captured the bridge and confiscated all known weapons."

Ela sighed.

"Roger that. Be more careful."

"Yes, ma'am."

The radios were silent for a while, giving Ela a chance to regain her composure.

"Just a minor mishap. Nothing to worry about," she thought to herself.

When the strike teams finished their work, Bravo reported in.

"Bravo One here. The crew has successfully been subdued. We've loaded them onto the lifeboats and sent them on their way."

"No casualties?"

"No casualties."

"Good. Commence the next phase. The Heart's Content will be there shortly."

The carrier had been lagging behind due to limited power but it had caught up to The Supernova by this point. The bridge could see some of its inhabitants waving to them as they passed by. Ela gave a casual salute before going back to watching one of the helicopters land on The Zvezda.

"Bravo Three reporting. Engineers are on board. Escorting them to the reactor now."

"Roger. Proceed as planned."

There were several difficulties in transplanting nuclear fuel from one ship to another, as they had learned during practice trials moving fuel rods from The Supernova to The Heart's Content. For one thing, there is no "off switch" for radioactive material. Normal procedure is to store spent fuel underwater for a decade before it was cool enough for transport, but the engineering team had no such luxury. Special extraction tools and containers had to be procured, which came at a great cost. Ultimately a deal was worked out which involved trading the last of their fighter jets, much to the dismay of the pilots. The Heart's Content had been selling its aircraft in exchange for food and supplies for years and now it was down to a handful of helicopters.

"All this for five years worth of fuel, tops," Ela muttered to herself.

The carrier pulled up beside The Zvezda while the engineers tinkered with the reactor. They had a bit of trouble thanks to the unfamiliar Soviet design but it was nothing they couldn't figure out. In relatively short order they managed to shut it down, cut it open, and begin transferring the rods into concrete containers to be airlifted out by helicopters. The deck of The Heart's Content was kept free of all non-essential personnel during this time for safety. Ela watched intently as the first fuel rods were carried over and carefully lowered into their new home through a hole on the deck. Typically, a ship like this would be taken apart in sections at a dry dock for a refueling and complex overhaul that could take over 36 months to complete, but Ela's comrades were under a strict time limit. A few hours was all they could afford, and accidents were most prone when workers were being rushed.

Without warning, an explosion rocked The Zvezda. A cloud of smoke came rising from the deck, obscuring the vision of the helicopter pilot who was directly above as he lifted a batch of fuel.

"Engineering team, report!"

"A fire broke out on deck! I don't know what- Hey wait, don't move that yet! It's not secure!" a panicked voice said over the radio, muffled by others' shouts and noise from the choppers.

A nightmare unfolded before Ela's eyes as flames shot into the air and a helicopter dropped an open canister of fuel rods onto the deck as it pulled away. Everything that happened after that was a blur. Those involved would rather not remember it anyway.

**********

A month after the botched refueling operation, Ela Novabay announced that The Heart’s Content had sunk in the resulting chaos. In the wake of failing their duty to protect the supercarrier, the crew of The Supernova finally surrendered to CLAW after 23 continuous years of unauthorized naval activity. The last bastion of freedom left in the world had been snuffed out. If ever there was a time for an organized resistance to rise up from the ashes and take on the tyrannical superpower, it would be now.

[bountyofbeads]

The U.S. Military Will Carry Out a Hasty, Risky Withdrawal

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/world/middleeast/turkey-syria-kurds-troops.html

How the U.S. Military Will Carry Out a Hasty, Risky Withdrawal From Syria

The Pentagon will have to disassemble combat bases that were built to stay for a mission that was supposed to last, and protect the troops as they withdraw amid a chaotic battlefield.

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt | Published October 15, 2019

Updated 5:39 PM ET | New York Times |

Posted October 15, 2019 6:00 PM ET |

President Trump’s decision — made in the span of a week — to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from northern Syria caught the Pentagon, and the forces on the ground, off guard.

To carry out the “endless wars” since Sept. 11, 2001, which Mr. Trump has vowed to wrap up, the American military has perfected the ability to build complex logistics pipelines that can funnel everything from armored vehicles to satellite internet access to gym equipment directly to combat outposts throughout the Middle East.

Now, American troops are making a hasty withdrawal from Syria — under pressure from encroaching Turkish proxy forces, Russian aircraft and columns armored by the Syrian government. This means the Pentagon will have to disassemble combat bases and other infrastructure that were built to stay for a mission that was supposed to last, all while protecting the troops as they withdraw amid a chaotic battlefield.

Where did U.S. troops operate before the Turkish offensive?

Before the Turkish offensive, American troops, mostly Special Operations forces, operated in an archipelago of about a dozen bases and outposts across northeastern Syria, mostly living alongside their Syrian Kurdish partners. They were divided into two main headquarters, known by their cardinal directions, East and West.

The outposts are often a mixture of blast-resistant walls known as Hesco barriers, rudimentary structures and all-weather tents. The large air base in the city of Kobani is replete with a small tent city and some container housing units.

The western headquarters, known as Advanced Operational Base West, oversaw roughly half a dozen smaller outposts that covered cities like Manbij and Raqqa. About 500 troops are dedicated to the area partly overseen by A.O.B. West.

The eastern headquarters, known as A.O.B. East, is closer to the Iraqi border and helps monitor some of the roughly 500 troops in that area around the Euphrates River Valley, with several smaller outposts around Deir al-Zour and some near the Iraq-Syria border in towns like Bukamal and Hajin. The number of forces in the east, however, is fluid, as units frequently move between Syria and Iraq.

Where are those troops moving now?

As the troops withdraw, they first will collapse inward by abandoning the outposts closest to the line of advancing foreign troops, in this case the Turkish military and its ill-disciplined Syrian militia proxies, along with Russian and Syrian government forces. That strategy was made clear in a video posted online Tuesday, showing a Russian journalist standing in an abandoned American outpost west of Manbij and closest to Syrian government troops.

Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the American-led coalition based in Baghdad, confirmed on Twitter on Tuesday, “We are out of Manbij.”

The troops are likely to be repositioned to Iraq or potentially to Jordan. Some may return to the United States, officials said.

What routes will the troops use in exiting Syria?

The western and eastern headquarters are likely to withdraw independently of each other. In the west, American forces will, according to American military officials, probably leave through the Kobani airfield, known as the Kobani Landing Zone. That base, with its long dirt runaway, can support C-17 transport aircraft and has a large Air Force contingent of maintenance staff. In the east, those forces will most likely exit overland and into Iraq in convoys, with some traveling via helicopter airlift.

Are there risks in the withdrawal?

The risk of confrontation with the medley of different ground forces — both state-led and proxy — is undoubtedly higher than it was several weeks ago.

Convoys moving through contested territory and aircraft making repeated landings all might contribute to an accidental confrontation or a staged attack, especially from any Islamic State leftovers that might want to take advantage of the sudden withdrawal.

One of the biggest risks to the remaining American troops as they pull back will most likely be attacks from a Turkish-backed Syrian militia called the Free Syrian Army, which has spearheaded the Turkish offensive in many places along the border. Those troops are supported by Turkish Army artillery and mortar fire, and Turkish Air Force strikes.

American officials say these Turkish-backed militia are less disciplined than regular Turkish soldiers, and deliberately or inadvertently have fired on retreating American troops. Another emerging threat comes from Islamic State fighters, who had gone underground after the defeat of the final shards of the terror group’s caliphate, or religious state, in northern Syria this year.

The hasty, risky nature of the withdrawal might actually require that the number of American troops in Syria be increased, at least temporarily. The military’s Central Command is preparing to send hundreds of additional American forces to help secure bases where American Special Forces have been operating with their Syrian Kurdish partners — many of whom have now left to fight the Turks — and safely evacuate those Americans in the coming weeks.

“We are repositioning additional forces in the region to assist with force protection as necessary,” Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper told reporters on Friday at the Pentagon.

In a sign of the concern over the safety of the remaining American troops in Syria, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke Monday with his Russian counterpart about the deteriorating security in the country’s northeast.

And last Friday, the American military logged an attempt to attack a Marine KC-130 transport aircraft landing in Kobani with “surface-to-air fire,” according to military documents obtained by The New York Times. The aircraft discharged flares as a defensive measure. The flight was unharmed and continued its approach, landing at the airfield.

Will any American troops stay in Syria?

Yes, there are roughly 150 troops at al-Tanf, a small base in southern Syria near the Jordanian border. While billed as a Special Operations mission to train local forces and go after the Islamic State, the base serves as a tollbooth of sorts for Iranian, Russian and Syrian forces in the region that have to navigate around its kilometers-wide defense bubble. The presence of American forces there gives the United States visibility on the movement and actions of those other military forces.

On the Jordanian side of the border, the American military keeps a quick reaction force staged there, including extra troops and artillery, in case anything were to go awry at the al-Tanf base.

The base also watches over a nearby refugee camp that is run by the United Nations.

What U.S. combat equipment will be left behind?

That is unclear. Some of the various bases’ hard structures, tents, tables, gym equipment and larger construction machinery might be left behind. What won’t be abandoned is anything sensitive, such as radios, weapons, armored vehicles and important documents.

American military officials say the hastier the withdrawal, the more equipment will be left behind or have to be destroyed. Much depends on the security conditions on the ground.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting.

*********

The U.S. Turned Syria’s North Into a Tinderbox. Then Trump Lit a Match.

The violence precipitated by the American withdrawal is an outcome of tensions that have been building since the conflict began more than eight years ago.

By Max Fisher | Published Oct. 15, 2019, 3:29 PM ET | New York Times | Posted October 15, 2019 6:00 PM ET |

To understand why President Trump’s withdrawal from Syria has unleashed such violence, it helps to see this moment as the culmination of a problem that has been building since the conflict began.

In the war’s first days, northern Syria’s large Kurdish population effectively seceded and, later, came to control the area.

The war’s many actors, Kurds included, knew this was, in the long term, not sustainable.

The Kurds were too weak to hold out forever. But they were too strong, too fearful of outside dominance and, over the course of the war, had built too many institutions of self-rule to be simply folded back into the Syrian state.

At the same time, the outside world saw Kurdish autonomy as essential to running out the Islamic State, but knew it was, long-term, a barrier to ending the war. Syria’s government would never accept losing the north’s oil and agricultural wealth. Turkey’s government, just across the border, saw permanent Kurdish autonomy as an unacceptable threat.

This became the northern Syria problem: How to reconcile these contradictions and create a sustainable, broadly acceptable equilibrium in northern Syria. Only then could the world hope to make the Islamic State’s defeat permanent and to end an eight-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

But the northern Syrian problem never got resolved.

Instead, the United States kept what was known to be an unsustainable status quo “frozen in place,” said Frances Z. Brown, who served as a director on the National Security Council under President Barack Obama and Mr. Trump.

That status quo served useful ends for Washington, first to drive out the Islamic State and later, under Mr. Trump, as a potential bargaining chip with the Syrian government and its allies.

American officials knew that the northern Syria problem would have be resolved, Ms. Brown said, and that only Washington had the leverage and relationships to do it. But other priorities took precedence.

The contradictions widened. Northern Syria became a tinderbox. An American troop presence kept it from exploding — until last week, when Mr. Trump suddenly recalled those troops and, in what amounted to tossing a match, invited Turkey to invade.

Now, years of unresolved tensions are exploding as Turkish troops, Syrian government troops and their Russian allies, and Kurdish forces all rush to impose a new equilibrium.

The northern Syria problem has gone from a mostly political issue to an armed struggle, opening a violent new chapter in a war that only a week ago had seemed to be winding down.

The Origins of a Problem

Countries often fracture during a civil war. Rebels seize territory. Minorities declare independence. The pieces seem like they will never fit back together until, after years or decades of peacekeeping missions and power-sharing deals, they do.

Syria’s disintegration was unusual in degree, partly because of the government’s brutality and the crisscrossing interventions that helped pull the country apart, but not in kind.

Still, northern Syria fractured in ways that made it particularly complicated to reassemble.

As war broke out, long-oppressed Kurds rose up as much out of self-defense as to carve out a degree of autonomy.

Syria’s government, focused on other fights, largely let them be.

The two sides, nominally opposed, needed each other. Syrian leaders in Damascus, the capital, would rather that Kurds held territory that might otherwise be taken by rebels that sought the government’s downfall. And the Kurds, not quite organized enough to fully control the north, needed Damascus to continue funding local government salaries and institutions.

That cold peace became far less stable with the involvement of the United States and Turkey.

For Turkey, every inch of Kurdish expansion across Syria and every day that the Kurds deepened their autonomy posed an ever-growing threat.

But as Turkey opposed the new order in northern Syria, the United States moved to deepen it. Adopting Syria’s Kurds as its ground force against the Islamic State, Washington gave them the financial, diplomatic and military cover to retake extremist-held territory.

Complicating matters further, the United States and Turkey are NATO allies with a litany of shared issues. This forced each country to accommodate the other’s concerns even as their positions in northern Syria came into greater conflict.

Northern Syria became split along two political axes: first Kurdish-Syrian, and now American-Turkish.

The first of those was tenuous on its own, said Ms. Brown, who is now an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But it was the second that created “an unsustainable equilibrium.”

American Contradictions

Northern Syria became ground zero for contradictions in Mr. Obama’s approach to Syria and, more recently, Mr. Trump’s, said Aaron Stein, director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Mr. Obama had demanded that Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, step down. But, in practice, he took steps to weaken but not remove Mr. Assad. And after the rise of the Islamic State, Mr. Obama prioritized defeating the extremist group.

Backing Syria’s Kurds, Mr. Obama became the patron of breakaway Syrian territory — and the owner of the northern Syria problem.

But the contradiction in his policy prevented Washington from resolving it.

The Kurds and Damascus could not reconcile without Washington’s acquiescence, which Mr. Obama’s stated opposition to Mr. Assad prevented him from granting. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s emphasis on defeating the Islamic State required him to allow the Kurds and Damascus to maintain their cold peace.

This opened another contradiction: The United States pledged to accommodate both the political aspirations of the Syrian Kurds and Turkey’s vehement opposition to Kurdish autonomy.

So the United States froze the cold peace in place, with plans to resolve the crosscutting disagreements after the Islamic State had been fully defeated and the north stabilized.

Mr. Trump came into office dropping demands for regime change in Syria, seemingly “resolving the tension in American policy,” Mr. Stein said.

“It was in the execution that we got back into tension with ourselves,” he said.

As with other foreign policy initiatives, Mr. Trump and members of his senior staff seemed to pursue diverging agendas.

While the president promised withdrawal, Pentagon and State Department officials reassured Kurdish groups with promises to stay. Last year, the State Department, bowing to Turkish objections, quietly blocked a Kurdish effort to begin reconciliation talks with Damascus.

James F. Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Syria, has described America’s presence as a bargaining chip to secure not just the Islamic State’s defeat but also political change in Syria and a rollback of Iranian influence.

“It was, ‘We’re going to use a permanent occupation in the northeast to force Bashar al-Assad to cut his own head off,’” Mr. Stein said, describing American demands for Mr. Assad to hold elections that would likely see him lose power.

These “maximalist goals,” Mr. Stein said, created the conditions for open-ended occupation, locking the status quo in place.

And they opened a new set of contradictions: The United States was now promising the Kurds a secure future while signaling it might trade the Kurdish territory away for broader goals.

But Mr. Trump’s opposition to an open-ended commitment in Syria and his habit of lashing out when he feels boxed in by his staff made the status quo unlikely to hold.

Beyond that, the approach would work only as long as Turkey tolerated an American-Kurdish ministate on its border — something Turkey insisted it could not allow.

“It was always built on a house of cards,” Mr. Stein said. “Everything was in tension.”

Sure enough, Mr. Trump announced an American departure from Syria late last year, prompting staff resignations that led Mr. Trump to reverse his plan. But the northern Syria problem remained unresolved, waiting to burst.

“Ten months later, the United States is still the only pole holding up the tent in northern Syria,” Aron Lund, an analyst at the Century Foundation, wrote in a policy brief last week. “And Trump seems to be saying that time is up.”

A Deepening Problem

Mr. Trump’s sudden departure has collapsed northern Syria’s already fragile equilibrium. The result is a political and security vacuum that the major forces — Turkish, Syrian government and Syrian Kurd — are scrambling to fill.

In a cycle familiar to such conflicts, all sides feel compelled to shape the new order to their advantage before others can do so first.

That creates an incentive for violence and, because political power in Syria derives from demographics, for atrocities of the sort that have punctuated the war’s worst moments.

The northern Syria problem, far from resolved by the American departure, is entering a new chapter that could be far bloodier, more chaotic and more destabilizing.

[airmanisr]

Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules (sn 97-1351 / sn 98-1357) Departure by Robert Sullivan Via Flickr: Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules prepares to leave the Maryland Air National Guard on September 13, 2011 at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Baltimore, MD while routine maintenance is performed on the new Alenia C-27J Spartan. The 135th Airlift Group transitioned from the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules to the Alenia C-27J Spartan, which was designed to meet Air Force requirements for a rugged, medium-sized air-land transport. The Alenia C-27J Spartan is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27A Spartan in U.S. service), equipped with the engines and various other systems also used on the larger Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules. In addition to the standard transport configuration, specialized variants of the C-27J have been developed for maritime patrol, search and rescue, C3 ISR (command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), fire support and electronic warfare and ground-attack missions. In 2007, the C-27J was selected as the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) for the United States military; these were produced in an international teaming arrangement under which L-3 Communications served as the prime contractor. In 2012, the United States Air Force (USAF) elected to retire the C-27J after only a short service life due to budget cuts; they were later reassigned to the U.S. Coast Guard and United States Special Operations Command. The C-27J has also been ordered by the military air units of Australia, Bulgaria, Chad, Italy, Greece, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Romania, Slovakia, and Zambia (on order).

[hudsonespie]

Recapitalizing Strategic Sealift Should Be the Pentagon's Top Priority

[By Dr. Daniel Goure]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has focused heavily on modernization and its associated concept, innovation. Emblematic of the enthusiasm for change is the strategic approach memorandum published last year by Air Force Chief of Staff General C.Q. Brown, titled “Accelerate Change or Lose.” Each of the services has ambitious acquisition programs in place intended to radically change their force structures by adding new, advanced capabilities. These vary from long-range precision fires and hypersonic missiles to sixth generation fighters, a new generation of attack submarines, and a new large surface combatant. While many of these programs and plans predate the November election, the evidence to date suggests that the Biden Administration plans to continue supporting the Pentagon’s drive for modernization and new operating concepts.

The drive to acquire new platforms and weapons systems is understandable. For the first time in 75 years, the United States faces the prospect of having to contend with not just one but two great power competitors, both of whom are investing heavily in advanced capabilities. However, the intense focus on acquiring new and better combat capabilities with which to establish overmatch vis-à-vis emerging high-end competitors may have hampered Pentagon leadership from recognizing the fact that without sufficient strategic sealift, many modernization efforts may be for naught.

It is difficult to overstate the dependence of the U.S. military on strategic sealift to both reach the fight and sustain itself during a crisis or conflict. Personnel and some critical equipment and supplies can be moved by aircraft. But for any major deployment overseas, much less a high-end conflict, the U.S. military is and will remain dependent on sealift. As Rear Admiral Mark Buzby (ret.), former head of the Maritime Administration (MARAD), observed: “This is how we move our forces from [the continental United States] to anywhere else in the world. We can stuff some of it in the back of a C-17 [aircraft] but not a whole lot…If you’re going to take real combat power someplace, it’s got to be in a ship.”

While the overall size of the U.S. military has shrunk substantially since the end of the Cold War, as has the number of forward deployed formations in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, this does not mean that the demand for strategic sealift has declined proportionately. Rather, the opposite may be the truth. Because it is primarily based in the continental United States, the U.S. military will need to move large amounts of equipment and supplies across thousands of miles of ocean in the event of a crisis or conflict in Europe or the Indo-Pacific. Once deployed, these forces will need to be resupplied and sustained.

In addition, the U.S. military is looking to operate these forces in new ways, generally characterized as distributed operations, with small formations spread out over large swaths of space, moving continuously to enhance survivability and strain adversary targeting. For example, the Marine Corps’ new operating concept envisions smaller formations capable of fighting at a moment’s notice and surviving inside the threat ranges of adversaries’ long-range precision strike weapons through a combination of reduced signatures, mobility, and relative freedom from a visible logistics tail. For several years, the U.S. Air Force has been experimenting with its Agile Combat Employment concept, in which units avoid large, developed facilities and move among dispersed, austere bases with limited logistics and maintenance support to complicate an adversary’s ability to detect and target them.

These distributed forces will not be able to carry large amounts of supplies, reloads for their missile systems, or fuel. They also want to free themselves from dependence on large, fixed installations, whether for operations or logistics support. But this means that U.S. forces will be even more reliant than they currently are on just-in-time resupply. While some of this responsibility can be met by airlift assets, there will be an increased requirement for strategic sealift if DoD is to sustain a force posture consisting of more widely distributed and frequently maneuvering forces, particularly in the vast Indo-Pacific theater.

This is a particularly worrisome situation because of the precarious state of the U.S. strategic sealift fleet. In peacetime, the movement of some supplies can be done by contracting with commercial shipping, but in the event of conflict, the willingness of commercial shippers—virtually all foreign-flagged—to enter a conflict zone is doubtful.

The ability of the U.S. military to reach a large-scale fight and sustain itself once deployed is dependent on a little over 100 ships: 46 in the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) operated by the Maritime Administration (MARAD), 15 ships for surge operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and some 60 U.S.-flagged commercial ships that are part of the Maritime Security Program (MSP), which provides a retainer incentive to the ships’ owners to ensure that these vessels are available to DoD if needed.

But over the past several decades, the number of hulls in the government-owned portion of the strategic sealift fleet (the RRF and MSC) has declined and those that remain are aging badly. In testimony, the then-MARAD Administrator Buzby warned the House Armed Services Committee that the RRF and MSC surge sealift fleets, about half of the total strategic sealift capability available to the military, are aging severely and in need of recapitalization. To underscore the problem, MARAD and MSC conducted a “turbo activation” exercise designed to test their ability to surge for a major contingency in September 2019. Of the 39 vessels that were called on to support the exercise, only 25 were ready for tasking and just 16 were able to operate at the expected level of performance.

This test simulated what is possibly the most serious vulnerability the U.S. military faces in preparing for a high-end conflict. The lack of adequate strategic sealift could outright negate the billions of dollars the U.S. military is investing in next-generation platforms and weapons systems. The military will not be able to get these “wonder weapons” to the fight or support them if they are deployed. According to the U.S. Army’s G-4 logistics directorate: “Without proactive recapitalization of the Organic Surge Sealift Fleet, the Army will face unacceptable risk in force projection capability beginning in 2024.”

It should seem obvious that the recapitalization of the strategic sealift force should be at the top of the Pentagon’s list of modernization objectives. If DoD truly desired to fully secure its strategic sealift capability, it would actively work to do so by recapitalizing the U.S. sealift fleet with ships designed and built in the United States.

But this is not possible. There is neither the shipbuilding capacity nor the supply chain to support such an effort. Moreover, in an era of constrained defense budgets, the cost would be prohibitive. Buying new ships in foreign ports would send scarce defense dollars overseas while not doing anything to support and sustain domestic U.S. shipbuilding, repair, and maintenance capabilities.

It appears that the only viable approach to revitalizing the strategic sealift fleet is to acquire used commercial vessels that would then be refurbished and modernized in U.S. commercial shipyards. These new ships would be placed in the RRF, replacing its aging and increasingly obsolescent assets. An efficient way of revitalizing this portion of the strategic sealift force would be to convert these used commercial ships into multi-mission supply vessels rather than for single-purpose use.

The current plan to recapitalize the RRF is a step in the right direction. It will slow the erosion of the U.S. strategic sealift force. But this should be just the start of the effort to restore the nation’s capability to project power globally. Sea power advocates have proposed a $25 billion fund to accelerate the Navy’s shipyard revitalization plan. This is a great example of smart infrastructure spending that would benefit national security and the economy.

In keeping with that plan, consideration should be given to expanding the strategic sealift force. One simple step would be to increase the retainer provided as part of the MSP program, incentivizing private companies to make their ships available to the military when needed. Another step would be to expand the size of both the RRF and MSC surge fleets. A new Mobility Capabilities and Requirements Study currently underway is likely to support the conclusion that the U.S. military needs a larger strategic sealift fleet, which similar studies have recommended in the past. It would also make sense to create a special fund for strategic sealift recapitalization, a parallel of the proposed fund for modernizing U.S. shipyards.

Recapitalizing the government-owned portion of the strategic sealift force should be one of DoD’s topmost priorities. Without adequate, accessible, and responsive sealift, the U.S. will find itself at a profound disadvantage in its efforts to deter or otherwise counter the growing might of great power competitors.

Dan Gouré, Ph.D., is a vice president at the public-policy research think tank Lexington Institute. Gouré has a background in the public sector and U.S. federal government, most recently serving as a member of the 2001 Department of Defense Transition Team.

This article appears courtesy of CIMSEC and may be found in its original form here.

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