C-5s providing 'muscle' for multi-modal helo swap-out missions to Afghanistan

Published March 3, 2011
By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Just months after supporting a record airlift effort to get 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, the Air Force's biggest airlifter -- the C-5 Galaxy -- and the mobility Airmen who maintain and fly them are part of another "big" effort. This time it's for a U.S. Transportation Command "multi-modal" effort moving U.S. Army helicopters to Afghanistan.

The operation now under way in Western Europe features two C-5B and two C-5M and crew and maintenance Airmen from the 436th Airlift Wing at Dover Air Force Base, Del., according to officials at Scott AFB's Tanker Airlift Control Center, or TACC. The C-5s are airlifting approximately 3,300 tons of cargo -- mainly Army helicopters that include the CH-47, UH-60, OH-58, and AH-60.

USTRANSCOM applies the term "multi-modal" to the movement of passengers and cargo by more than one mode of transportation. In this operation, commercial ships carry equipment and helicopters for the U.S. Army's 159th Combat Aviation Brigade to Western Europe, and from there C-5s carry the cargo to Afghanistan. At the same time, equipment and helicopters from the Army's 101st Combat Aviation Brigade are flown back to Western Europe from Afghanistan and then reloaded on ships back to the United States.

Overall, TACC officials said, the C-5s are moving more than 170 helicopters in this operation. And, according to Air Mobility Command officials, the C-5 is doing exactly what it was designed to do.

"The C-5 can carry more than any other airlifter," its Air Force fact sheet shows. "It has the ability to carry 36 standard pallets and up to 81 troops simultaneously. The Galaxy also carries all of the Army's air-transportable combat equipment, including such bulky items as its 74-ton mobile scissors bridge (or helicopters) from the United States to any theater of combat on the globe. It can also carry outsize and oversize cargo intercontinental ranges and can take off or land in relatively short distances."

C-5M also a 'big' player

The use of the C-5M Super Galaxy in this effort provides yet another building block for the newest C-5 variant. According to the Air Mobility Command Logistics Directorate, only four C-5Ms are currently in full operation for the Air Force with more on the way in the future.

The C-5 aircraft that undergo both the Avionics Modernization Program, which began in 1998, and the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engineing Program upgrades are designated as the "Super Galaxy," AMC facts show. An M-model includes approximately 70 different upgrades, including improved engines. The Air Force plans to upgrade 52 Galaxies to "super" status by the end of 2016.

This also isn't the first time the C-5Ms have made this type of effort. In summer 2010, two C-5Ms, and eight other C-5 legacy aircraft (A- and B-models), transported more than 100 U.S. Army helicopters and more than 400,000 pounds of related equipment from Western Europe to Afghanistan, according to a July 2010 AMC news report.

In that news report, Capt. Cory Damon, a Dover aircrew member involved in that operation as well as a current operation, praised in particular the use of the C-5M for these kinds of operations. "[The crew] wore out before the C-5M did," Captain Damon said in the report.

The 'multi-modal' effort

In terms of getting this overall effort done, USTRANSCOM is the key to success, according to its commander, Gen. Duncan J. McNabb.

In a February speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, General McNabb said, "No other nation can do what we do." He noted how the service portions of USTRANSCOM work together: Air Mobility Command, the Military Sealift Command and the Army's Surface Deployment and Distribution Command.

In discussing the multi-modal concept, General McNabb, "What we've found, like the rest of the industry, is that if you can figure out how to do this inter-modally, you can figure out where I can go commercially, and then where I need to go militarily, or I can go surface or air, depending on the threat."

This allows planners to ensure they are taking care of warfighters while delivering people, supplies and equipment in the most cost-efficient manner, General McNabb said.

(U.S. Transportation Command Public Affairs and Capt. Justin Brockhoff, TACC Public Affairs, contributed to this report.)