DELIVERING ON OPERATIONS
Logistics in action
As the UK’s strategic air transport hub, RAF Brize Norton was tasked with dispatching relief supplies to the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria (PHOTO: PAUL CROUCH/ CROWN COPYRIGHT/MOD)
For everyone living and working at RAF Brize Norton, 7 September 2017 started off as a normal day. Over the coming week, the base’s A400M Atlas, C-17 and Voyager aircraft were due to keep military supplies flowing for the peak of the annual Defence training season in North America and Africa. They would also maintain logistic supplies to Operation Shader against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, as well as to Operation Kipion in the Gulf, while ensuring support to British Forces in the South Atlantic – 42 aircraft movements in five days. This was a challenging, but relatively straightforward, task. By the end of the day, however, Brize Norton was in a state of frenetic, yet focused, activity. The Station Commander had received a phone call with orders for the station to manage the logistic supplies for one of the largest humanitarian operations in a generation – Operation Ruman. This was a mission to bring relief and reassurance to the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean that had just been hit by the biggest Atlantic hurricane on record – the category 5 Irma. That same day, Wing Commander (Wg Cdr) Stuart Gregory assumed command of No 1 Air Mobility Wing,
which would coordinate the logistic activity at RAF Brize Norton. His first day on the job would be spent trying to introduce clarity of purpose into what he calls “a very ambiguous and dynamic situation”. He had fewer than 24 hours to start getting aircraft off the runway and over to Barbados, with the men, women and equipment needed not only to undertake the relief mission, but also to support them while they were doing it. In addition, those 42 air movements already planned into the schedule were still expected to happen, as was the normal flight schedule after them.
RELIEF FLIGHTS BEGIN A giant C-17 was the first aircraft to deploy on 7 September. On board, it carried the Joint Force HQ, troops with most of their personal equipment and aid packages, along with a team of RAF air movements specialists from UK Mobile Air Movements Squadron (UKMAMS). A Voyager followed a couple of hours later, carrying the leadership team from 38 Expeditionary Air Wing (38 EAW) as well as more troops and equipment. Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Miranda Cope from UKMAMS and three more movers were also on this Voyager. Expecting to return that same day, they did not see Brize Norton again until 12 October. In command of the 140-strong 38 EAW was Wg Cdr
BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION AIR FORCE AIR POWER 2018
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