USMC, is a Harrier pilot as well as UH-60
Black Hawk pilot and he was the first
MAG- 40 commander in Afghanistan.
He was already in close contact with Col.
John McCardle who was my second Joint
Air Group Commander and that was a
fantastic relationship which has been built
on.” One area of particular note has been
the success of CSAR/casualty evacuation.
“Our dealings with the Pedros [U.S.
Air Force Combat Search and Rescue
teams flying UH-60G Pave Hawk heli-
copters] has totally complemented our
Medical Emergency Response Team
(MERT) Chinooks. As we were co-locat-
ed at Camp Bastion the two HQ teams
discussed which aircraft should go on
each emergency depending on the type
of situation that was being faced. Their
advantage is that they can get into smaller
spaces than a Chinook with their onboard
paramedic; get in and out fast. The MERT
Chinook has a consultant trauma special-
ist onboard, plus a full medical team plus
the protection team who can provide
intrusive care in the bid to save lives.”
Vector Aerospace is a company that
took over supporting many of the UK’s
helicopters from the government-owned
Defence Aviation and Repair Agency
(DARA) in 2008. “Vector UK’s contribu-
tion [towards supporting the fight in
Afghanistan] has been incredible,” states
Johnstone-Burt. “For every contractor we
send into theatre, we can save five uni-
formed personnel” [this due to the har-
mony scheme of rotating people through
Johnstone-Burt says his goal is to sustain the current tempo of operations for the next five years and to be ready for future operations.
the war zone—one tour on, four tours at
home—which is the official sustainable
harmony rate]. “Vector with partner Boeing has given us 10 personnel out there so
that saves me 50 engineers. The contractors are doing the most fantastic job in
Kandahar maintaining the basic servicing
for our Chinooks. Agusta Westland is also
keen to help and I want to encourage
that.”
UK MoD
Practice Makes Perfect
The JHC conducts foreign exercises in
Norway (Exercise Clockwork), Kenya
(Grand Prix, Morocco (Jebel Sahara) and
Arizona (Crimson Eagle).
“Extreme training is as pertinent in
Norway—the recirculation of snow cre-
ates a white out similar to a brown-out—as
it is in Kenya. They are exactly the same
principles as we experience in the desert.
My overriding priority now is to do all
that I can to get the rotary training—
pre-deployment and environmental—as
close to the army as possible. Where this
is succeeding best is Kenya where we
have increased the number of Grand Prix
exercise from three or four to seven per
year. I have around seven Puma aircraft
out there permanently. Their job is purely
to support the field army and to work on
pre-deployment training.”
Johnstone-Burt says that this was a
training ambition for many years but
was unachievable due to the demands of
servicing two theatres—Iraq and Afghani-
stan. “Pulling out of Iraq has provided a
massive training dividend to the field army.
Crimson Eagle in Arizona is also outstand-
ing. It gives us hot and high conditions
where we try and replicate the conditions in
terms of severity and environment that we
will come up against when deployed—and of
course we can ‘live fire’ as well.”
“The only way we turned the Merlin
force around so fast from Iraq to deploy to
Afghanistan was by sending the lot to Ari-
zona—full emersion training for the whole
force. They were turned around in only a few
months. We used four aircraft and we cir-
cled five flights through them. We talk about
the rule of five—fighting by flight. There are
five flights in every single force. The flight is
balanced according to experience, seniority
and capability.”
Rear Admiral Johnstone-Burt seems to
have the force moving in the direction he
has wanted since taking over command in
2008—and he now has the breaking space to
do it. “Over the last two years that has been
my overriding aim—to put the Joint Heli-
copter Command on a sustainable footing so
that we can sustain the tempo of operations
that we have now for the next five years at
least. When Afghanistan finishes I must
still be able to deliver on the next operation,
wherever that may be in the world. I don’t
want to burn the force, as our American
friends would describe it.”
PUMA LEP
The Puma Life Extension Program, signed
in September 2009
for £220 million, will
see 28 Puma Mk1 aircraft transformed by
Eurocopter into Puma
HC Mk2 aircraft by
December 2014. The program is based on comprehensive upgrades, including
new Turbomeca Makila 1A1 engines, a glass cockpit, new communications,
navigation and defensive systems, and a digital autopilot. The Puma HC Mk2’s
performance and payload will be substantially increased, particularly in hot
and high conditions. This will extend the type’s service life to 2022.
