First Air Force mission flies through Russian air space under new agreement

Published Oct. 8, 2009
By Capt. Justin Brockhoff
618th Tanker Airlift Control Center Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- The first U.S. Air Force jet to fly through Russian airspace under a new agreement between U.S. and Russian officials flew from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, late Wednesday, according to Air Mobility Command officials.

A C-17 Globemaster III, crewed by members of the 437th Airlift Wing from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., made the trip carrying nearly 50 thousand pounds of cargo to forces supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

The new transit agreement, reached in early July, will permit 4,500 flights to pass through Russian air space per year and will save the U.S. government up to $133 million annually in fuel, maintenance and other transportation costs, according to a White House fact sheet.

Eighteenth Air Force's 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center, which serves as AMC's hub for global airlift, air refueling and aeromedical evacuation operations, planned the mission and obtained the diplomatic clearances required to overfly Russia and other nations along the route.

The 618th TACC also provided command-and-control for the mission from the organization's 24-hour operations floor at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

"We've been working through the requirements for new flight routings and diplomatic clearances to take advantage of the new agreement," said Lt. Col. Jim Allen, chief of the 618th TACC's Diplomatic Clearance and Flight Plans Division. "This agreement provides more options for us when planning worldwide airlift and tanker operations, specifically getting troops and supplies into Southwest Asia."

That coordination in recent years has included hundreds of thousands of point-to-point flights, called sorties, in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

In fact, for OIF and OEF alone, AMC aircrews have flown more than 510,000 sorties, which includes transportation of more than nine million passengers and 3.7 million tons of cargo since the operations began.

"We work very hard to meet the needs of U.S. and coalition forces all around the world by providing airlift, air refueling and aeromedical evacuation capabilities when and where they're needed," said Maj. Gen. Mark Solo, the 618th TACC commander. "At the same time, we're continually working to find ways to make our operations as fast and efficient as possible, and the options these new flight routings provide will help us with that goal."