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Charleston hosts transport of MRAPs

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. April Quintanilla
  • 437th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  Charleston AFB and Dover AFB members came together to load Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles onto a C-5 Galaxy at Charleston AFB Aug. 16.

Teamed together, it took the Airmen less than four hours to load the aircraft, strap down the MRAPs, refuel the plane and take off.

A C-5, under the authority of the Air Mobility Command, is the largest airlifter in the Air Force inventory and the only aircraft that could hold two MRAP Buffalo model vehicles, which weigh about 23 tons each. Charleston will soon be transporting the MRAPs by C-17 to deployed locations.

MRAP vehicles have been designed to protect troops, reduce casualties, increase mobility and enhance mission success.

"The MRAPs are shipped to Iraq by the 437th Aerial Port Squadron on Charleston AFB," said 2nd Lt. Kegan Moreira, 437 APS Officer in charge of cargo operations. "The vehicles are part of the 300 tons of cargo the unit moves on a daily basis and it typically takes about one to two days to airlift the MRAPs to Iraq. A small number of MRAPs are taken by sea, which takes between 20 and 30 days," he said.

Charleston AFB started sending MRAPs out to assist deployed troops in the Global War on Terrorism in 2005. The 437 APS made it their number one priority to have the MRAPs airlift scheduled and transported out within 24 hours to support the troops, upon receiving them at the base.

"It's absolutely critical to get these vehicles to our troops as fast as possible," said Master Sgt. Jared Breyer, 437 APS NCO in charge of special handling. "It saves lives every day when they have them." 

In December 2006, after insurgent bombs killed almost 1,200 U.S. troops in Iraq, the Joint Chiefs validated requests from Iraq for 4,060 MRAPs, and the formal MRAP program was launched. 

"The majority of the MRAPs sent out of Charleston until now have been for the Marine Corps," said Capt. Jim Lovell, 437 APS flight commander for air terminal operations. "But starting in the middle of September, the majority of the MRAPs will be sent to the Army."

The Department of Defense will provide more than 7,700 MRAP vehicles to the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility through December 2008. The majority of these vehicles will be airlifted from Charleston AFB, S.C.; the rest will go by sealift. When the MRAPs move into full production, Air Force airlift resources and tankers will meet the new requirements while maintaining other airlift priorities.

In March, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said in USA Today, "No Marines have been killed in more than 300 attacks on MRAPs there."

"Without MRAPs, loss rates are likely to continue at their current rate," said Maj. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, who leads the Marine Corps special operations command. "Terrorists also employed mines, but to a much lesser degree and with much less destructive power than we are experiencing today. The terrorists primarily targeted the sides of our vehicles and, to a much lesser extent, the undercarriage of the vehicles."

The plan to virtually phase out the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, more commonly known as the HMMWV, from use in combat patrols and high-risk missions will soon be a reality through the expansion of the MRAP program, according to the Defense Update International On-line Defense Magazine.

Responding to the urgent requirement, the Army plans to have all 17,700 MRAPs in their deployed locations by April 2009. To accommodate this plan, all suppliers are expanding their production facilities to speed up deliveries, reaching several hundred vehicles per month by the autumn of 2007.

For more information, go to http://www.defense-update.com/products/m/mrap.htm.