Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1064315
training procedures have been based on documents developed by EAG and, of course, NATO documents such as ATP-49. The squadron was established in 2008, receiving its first CSAR W-3PL Głuszec helicopters in December 2010. In order to learn the CSAR procedures in practice, the squadron's pilots have been taking part in CJPRSC as observers each year since 2008. We'd been also training our crews in flying W-3s to make the later W-3PL training as short as possible. How did your relation with CJPRSC training come about? The squadron got its first W-3PL in December 2010, we start- ed the training in 2011, and in 2013 the squadron was opera- tionally ready to carry out CSAR missions – and this was the first time we took part in a CJPRSC course in Cazaux in France (before that our role in the courses was limited only to observa- tion). It was a test for both us and the helicopters – the flight to Cazaux, above the Bay of Biscay, covering over 2,000 km, includ- ed four refueling stops (at Holzdorf, Fritzlar, Nancy-Ochey, and Avord airports). I have to say that the helicopters passed the test in France, and we started learning planning and cooperating in an international environment. The bar was set high because the mission was really challenging, and we were not given preferen- tial treatment even though we were novices in a CSAR mission. A typical course day involves three missions, with each task having a RMC (Rescue Mission Commander) appointed to com- mand the assigned PRTF (Personnel Recovery Task Force). PRTF soldiers plan the course of mission in teams of several people. Before the crews board the machines, each team mem- ber has to know: the flight plan and route, the levels of deconflic- tion of individual aircraft units, the tactics in the event of fire, the methods of communication, the actions to be taken in the target area, the ground tactics of EF (Extraction Force), the method of identification, the way to enter adverse weather conditions, in- cluding switching to IFR. Working out a final plan takes four to six hours, but it's always a race against the clock, based usually on pieces of information transmitted from the conflict area. The chances to re- cover a lost pilot safely decrease with each hour. Mission planning is always supervised by MIMO (Mission Monitoring Officers) from EPRC. They make sure that the planning and the execution comply with the procedures adopted by NATO. Standardization is extremely important. It is to make all NATO pilots train following the same patterns and become able to carry out a given mission in any place, at any time, with any team. To understand how big a challenge to crews this is, it's enough to say that one mission involves over a dozen of planes and helicopters from different countries, with an addition of special forces, and the mission is coordinated from the board of an AWACS plane. To make the training conditions more lifelike, soldiers train dealing with anti-air- craft measures and in conditions of radio-electronic jamming.