Aviation Specials - July 2018

cannons, ammunition, and personnel

for an artillery battery, haul Humvees or

light armored vehicles from ship to shore,

move fuel bladders to forward arming

and refueling points (FARPs), and recover

downed aircraft.

This latter capability, which falls under

the tactical recovery of aircraft and

personnel (TRAP) mission set, proved

especially relevant in Afghanistan, where

aircraft downed by anything from a

maintenance issue to enemy ground  re

could be lifted out of hostile or contested

territory by Marine Corps Stallions. Baxter

recalled one such recovery in which

he had the opportunity to participate.

‘In 2014, I got to lift a British Chinook in

Afghanistan. It took some rounds doing

a tactical operation and it lost its  ight

control systems, so they had to make an

emergency landing in Marjah.’ Having

briefed the recovery with the Chinook

 ight crew (who stripped down the

aircraft to reduce weight) and the ground

personnel from the UK Joint Helicopter

Support Squadron who prepared the

aircraft for sling-loading, Baxter and his

crew  ew to Marjah to pick the aircraft

We can move a heavy weapons company

with all their associated munitions and

mortars – that’s no problem for us. If we

wanted to, we could come in with a second

wave and bring in their vehicles

up. ‘It wound up being about 31,600lb,’ he

recalled. ‘It was a huge win, denying the

enemy a propaganda opportunity.’

Though not tasked primarily as a rescue

vehicle, the ‘Echo’ can be used to recover

downed airmen during TRAP missions.

This was the case in June 1995, when a

pair of CH-53s attached to the 24th Marine

Expeditionary Unit rescued air force

captain Scott O’Grady from deep within

enemy-held territory in Bosnia after his

F-16 was shot down by a Serbian surface-

to-air missile.

Along with the  exibility to carry a wide

variety of personnel and cargo across a

broad spectrum of mission sets, the ‘Echo’

has the ‘legs’ to reach almost any landing

zone it could conceivably be tasked to

deliver troops or equipment to. With

robust internal fuel capacity and standard-

 t external drop tanks, the CH-53E has

an unrefueled range of 641 miles. That

envelope can be expanded with the

addition of ferry tanks carried in the

cargo hold and through aerial refueling.

Practising the range extension technique

Large force

events are

commonplace

during WTI,

including an

urban warfare

element.

US NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018

(^30) UNIT REPORT
28-35 MAWTS-1 C.indd 30 31/05/2018 15:25