Flaps down, losing height, approaching the runway threshold, then the bump and a squeal from the tyres as the aircraft landed on the tarmac. And because we’d landed on the north-east runway, we were able to roll all the way down to the Harrier dispersal at the far end and didn’t have to face the hazards of the taxiways.
In the dispersal I shut down the engine, rotated the lever to make the ejection seat safe and unplugged everything. For a few minutes I just sat there, eyes closed, and for the first time in four months I was able to totally relax. With that flight, 800 Naval Air Squadron had completed the detachment, without a single loss or serious injury, and we’d achieved everything we set out to do. Then I roused myself and climbed out.
Leading Air Engineering Technician Dobinson was looking critically at the bare pylons under the GR7’s wings. Dobbo basically ran all the squadron weapons. He was one of the most experienced weapons technicians in the Navy, and had done every single deployment to date because men of his experience and capability were in such short supply. He nodded his shaven head in approval.
‘I see you broke your duck, then, boss,’ he said.
‘You could say that,’ I replied. ‘I bloody nearly broke a lot of things today,’ I added as I walked away.
26
That was my last sortie on my last day in theatre. Before I got airborne on that final sortie I just wanted to hold it together and not do anything stupid, which in view of what happened in the air proved somewhat optimistic. Yet for all that did go wrong on that final flight, it hadn’t distracted me from the most important thought of all. And that was that I was in the air to do exactly the same thing as I’d been doing for the last four months: to try to save the lives of the good guys on the ground and, in doing so, take the lives of the enemy they faced.
It’s too easy to remain quite detached from the reality. There’s a big difference between stabbing someone with a bayonet – when you can see their face and their body and you’re close enough to touch them, see their pain and see their blood – and dropping a bomb on them. When you deliver a weapon you are so focused on the process of delivering it you don’t think for a moment about what effect it will have. You are totally concentrating on getting the job done and, even after the event, I would argue that you’re still relatively detached. I think most of my fellow Harrier pilots would agree that it’s possible to maintain that distance all the way through.
The BDA that told us half a dozen Taliban had been killed – did that bother me? The only honest answer is no. I didn’t think about them as individuals. I didn’t think about their families. I didn’t think about any of it.
All I thought about was that those people were on one side of a river firing their weapons at coalition troops on the other side, and my job was to stop them doing that. They were combatants, we were combatants, and this time we won and they lost. Next time the result might be different.
There seems to be a perception among people who know little about the conflict in Afghanistan that the Taliban are just a bunch of religious nutters wearing outdoor pyjamas and black turbans, waving copies of the Koran and carrying Kalashnikovs.
Some, of course, will be. And none seem to have any apparent fear of death. They just don’t give up. Even if, after a terrific pounding from air-delivered weapons or artillery, a single Talib was left alive in a compound with the means to fight on, he surely would. Fortunately, I’m sure that the key to success in Afghamistan lies not with the Taliban, but with the rest of the country’s civilian population.
The way to defeat the Taliban as a movement is not to kill them, but to demonstrate to the majority of Afghanistan’s people that their quality of life will be better without them around. Only when that situation occurs will the Taliban begin to find that they have no recruits, and no safe havens, and then the battle against this particular form of radical Islam will be won.
So why are the coalition forces in Afghanistan at all? And are we doing any good?
We are there because we were invited to send a multinational force to the country by the Afghan government – a situation completely different from that in Iraq, where the allied troops are perceived, in some quarters, to be an invading army. The coalition is in Afghanistan by request, to help protect and rebuild the country’s infrastructure and to help suppress the Taliban’s constant attacks. And, yes, we are doing some good.
But is the present conflict winnable? It is, if by ‘winnable’ we mean suppressing the Taliban and keeping them suppressed for a few years. We’ll never be able to eliminate them, because the movement is continually recruiting new members, and they will always be there in the wings, just waiting for an opportunity to move back into Afghanistan and try to regain control.
Ultimately that decision, too, really rests with the people of Afghanistan, because it is they who have allowed the Taliban to establish a powerful presence in their country. I would like to think that, as a result of the present campaign in Afghanistan, the Afghans might be strong enough to take a firm stance against them, but history doesn’t provide much support for this view. Realistically, because much of Afghanistan is a subsistence economy with the people barely scratching out a living from the poor soil, the likelihood is that they will take the path of least resistance. Many of them are so busy trying to stay alive that they have no time to become involved in any kind of political decision. And if the Taliban appear again and offer them a choice of either supporting the movement or being executed – a tactic that has characterized the Taliban’s ‘recruitment campaigns’ in the past – it’s not difficult to predict what decision they, or indeed anyone else, would take.
Once the people of a village or compound join the Taliban – and it’s worth saying that most Afghans are born, live their entire lives and die within about twenty miles of a single location, staying in the same village throughout – they are safe from attacks by them. But, as in any situation of this sort, there’s a price to pay. The Taliban support themselves financially by taking a healthy share of the income generated by their supporters. In the days of Al Capone this was called a ‘protection racket’. I’ve no idea what the Taliban call it, but it’s exactly the same game.
There is one reality about Afghanistan that everybody acknowledges: we can never kill all the Taliban. That means that whatever the final outcome of the Afghanistan campaign, the Taliban will still be there and will still want a piece of the pie. The Afghans are going to have to live with that, and accommodate them in some – hopefully small – way if the nation is to survive.
The corollary to this reality is that, sooner or later, we will have to start talking with the Taliban, if we aren’t doing so already. Peace will not be possible if all we do is bomb and shoot them. And for all the violence that’s been an unavoidable feature of the campaign in Afghanistan, the priority of the British mission there remains improving the lives of the civilian population through reconstruction and aid. For that effort to take root, though, in the end a settlement is needed that will allow all Afghans, regardless of background or outlook, to live together. I can see no other realistic way forward.
From flash to bang, from inception to going out of theatre, seemed a very short period, and the squadron acquitted itself extremely well. We arrived in theatre at a time when the tempo of flying operations was at the highest ever recorded in Afghanistan. We were thrust in cold to start flying at that rate, a rate that had surged for only a month, and managed to sustain it for a further three months.
Looking back at the Afghanistan det, I knew that if it had been a steep learning curve for the whole squadron it was particularly so for the pilots. Most of them had to – for the very first time – put all their training into effect in an extremely hostile environment, delivering live weapons and killing insurgents. No matter how hard anyone trained or practised, the thought that on every sortie there was a good chance that your actions would result in the deaths of maybe dozens of human beings in a split second was sobering in the extreme. Nobody took this a
spect of their mission lightly, but at the same time they realized that the squadron was at war and fighting an enemy that would give no quarter. ‘Kill or be killed’ sounds trite, but in Kandahar and Helmand in the first decade of the twenty-first century it is absolutely true.
In this environment I saw the personnel of 800 NAS grow up very quickly, from simple necessity. The reality of daily combat became almost routine. Nearly every day, rockets or mortars would land somewhere on Kandahar Airfield. Running to the air-raid shelters became a part of our daily – or, just as often, nightly – existence. Repatriation ceremonies were far too common. For every single person in the squadron, the war in Afghanistan was very real.
The squadron’s pilots were right on the front line. Every day we would fly another sortie to help a foot patrol under fire somewhere. We’d drop another bomb and perhaps a dozen Taliban fighters would be killed. Daily combat had become a part of our lives, an experience indelibly etched on our memories, an experience that we knew would colour our judgement and attitudes for the rest of our lives.
On 31 March 2009 the Harrier force should be finished in Afghanistan, when it’s due to be replaced by a Tornado detachment. After four relentless years in theatre, the decision was made to give Joint Force Harrier a break.
There were only ever two possible replacements. The first was the new Eurofighter Typhoon, but despite an announcement in the summer of 2008 that the Typhoon FGR4 was operational in an air-to-ground role, I’d be surprised if it was yet ready to flourish in an environment like Afghanistan. As with the French Rafale, it’s still relatively early days in the development of what is clearly a hugely impressive aircraft.
So the only other option was the long-serving Tornado. Like the Harrier, the Tornado, which first entered service in the early eighties, has become progressively more capable throughout its service life. RAF Tornado GR4 squadrons have been flying in support of coalition troops in Iraq since 2003. They are extremely competent and experienced operators, but the capabilities offered by the two aircraft are really very different. One was designed from the outset as a deployed CAS aircraft, the other as a low-level straight-line bomber. But the Tornado’s two-man crew may be a real asset. And its internal cannon may also prove extremely useful – and was something which Harrier pilots had to manage without. But Joint Force Harrier will be a hard act to follow. And Afghanistan is an unforgiving theatre. I wish them luck – and every success.
My own personal prediction is that, following the planned three-year Tornado deployment, we’ll see the Harriers sent straight back afterwards, although the jury’s out on whether it will be Typhoon or Harrier. And there’s certainly every probability that the Typhoons will be tasked in a higher-priority scenario, being, as it will be by then, the UK’s primary multi-role aircraft. At least, that is, until the F-35 comes into service.
In the new Harrier GR9 the Fleet Air Arm is flying what is arguably the best Close Air Support platform in the world. Previously it was second only to the A-10, and now it’s on a par with the famous (and bloody ugly) Warthog, because we now have the helmet-mounted cueing system. Harrier pilots can look out of the window at a target and instead of having to point a sensor at it, we can just click a button on the throttle. This enters the target we’re looking at directly into the weapon system. It makes a huge difference. The speed at which Joint Force Harrier is now able to bring weapons to bear on a target is staggering.
The aircraft is also getting an upgrade of its self-defence suite – real state-of-the-art stuff. And to be introduced before long are a data link system using Link 16 – by allowing different assets to share information, this ensures more effective cooperation – and a short-range data link for communicating with troops on the ground. From that point on, I don’t believe there will be a more capable CAS platform than the Harrier anywhere in the world.
It’s also worth saying that while the A-10 is an awesome piece of machinery, it does have one significant disadvantage in that it is so slow (as well as ugly). It can only travel at about 240 knots with all its gear on. That’s slower than a Second World War Spitfire. At full chat the Harrier can get to the scene of the action at over 500 knots. Or, put another way, in half the time. That difference could be crucial.
On 13 January 2007 800 Naval Air Squadron returned to the UK. Since then the squadron has been back out to the theatre, leaving Britain on 1 October that year and coming home on 2 February 2008. The squadron did yet another detachment to Afghanistan at the end of July. The timing on this occasion was shifted slightly so that the squadron didn’t have to spend its third successive Christmas in Kandahar.
What of the future for the Fleet Air Arm? On 9 March 2007 elements of both 800 and 801 NAS combined to form Naval Strike Wing, which in turn is one of the three squadrons that comprise Joint Force Harrier, flying the GR7 and GR9. For the next six to eight years, until the two new aircraft carriers – the CVF class, scheduled to enter service in 2014 and 2016 – are commissioned, Joint Force Harrier will represent the entirety of Royal Naval fixed-wing aviation.
But the Fleet Air Arm will soon start to expand again, with the arrival of two new 65,000-ton carriers: HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. These will be the two biggest ships ever commissioned into the Royal Navy and three times larger than the current CVS-class ships. The Air Group they’re expected to carry will include forty F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. The F-35 Lightning II is a supersonic, single-seat, single-engine, multi-role aircraft that can be configured for Close Air Support, tactical bombing and air-to-air combat. It is an awesomely capable aircraft that will take the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF, which will also operate it, well into the twenty-first century. I won’t be around to fly it – I’ll be behind a desk somewhere by the time it’s in service – but I hope the new aircraft will be flown by men of the same calibre that I had the privilege to fly with in Afghanistan.
With this carrier and aircraft combination, the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm will once more have the capability of operating anywhere in the world, against any enemy in the air or on the ground, in any combat role and in any theatre. After the traumas associated with the demise of the Sea Harrier, the future of the Fleet Air Arm once again looks bright. I hope it will be said that, in the lean years, we kept the flag flying. And that, while small in number, the Navy’s fixed-wing pilots, flying within Joint Force Harrier, made our own invaluable contribution to the Fleet Air Arm’s proud history.
1. The late, lamented Sea Harrier FA2. With the early retirement of the radar-equipped, missile-armed SHAR, the Fleet Air Arm was, for the time being at least, out of the air-defence business. From now on we were mudmovers – ground-attack specialists.
2. 800 Squadron returns. The re-commissioning order from CINCFLEET.
3. 800 Naval Air Squadron re-commissions at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland. It was a joint Navy and RAF affair. And on the same day, 3 Squadron RAF converted to the new Eurofighter Typhoon.
4. The re-commissioning cake listing the squadron’s long list of battle honours: Norway Mediterranean, Malta Convoys, Bismarck, Diego Suarez, North Atlantic, Battle of France, Aegean, Burma, Korea and the Falklands.
5. My new office.
6. The new 800 NAS livery adorns the side of a Harrier GR7 fuselage.
7. HMS Illustrious at sea.
8. Take-off is optional, landing is obligatory. Moments before touchdown, a Harrier, held airborne on four columns of thrust from its powerful Rolls Royce Pegasus engine, recovers vertically aboard HMS Illustrious off Oman.
9. 800 NAS in its element – a GR7 on the deck of HMS Illustrious, with HMS Gloucester riding shotgun alongside.
10. Red Sea Rig. 800 NAS, in our trademark red cummerbunds, pose on deck. Time aboard the carrier provoked an outburst of beard-growing.
11. With the jet resting on jacks, 800 NAS engineers begin work on an engine change inside HMS Illustrious’s hangar.
12. Ready for take-off.
13. Armed with a pair of live 1,000 lb laser-g
uided bombs, a GR7 accelerates down the flight deck.
14. Lift-off. A GR7 captured at the moment it takes to the air. By almost throwing the jet off the bow of the ship, the ramp (or ski jump) enables the Harrier to take off carrying heavier loads.
15. The jet climbs away en route to the Omani bombing ranges – our last chance to train with live ammunition before deploying to Afghanistan.
16. Members of the squadron check and pack their new kit before leaving for Afghanistan.
17. Disembarking from the RAF Tristar at Kabul, we got our first glimpse of Afghanistan’s rugged landscape.
18. The Navy’s here. The White Ensign flies alongside the RAF flag over Kandahar Airfield (KAF) – a clear reminder of how, as Joint Force Harrier, the two services were working together.
19. It’s not much, but for the four months of the det, this was home.
20. Burger King. Self-contained within a standard international shipping container, it was simply flown in, in the back of a C-17.
21. It wasn’t all bad. The Americans made sure that Kandahar airfield had all the amenities. Here I’m enjoying a coffee with Hoggy, one of my more junior pilots.
22. A Russian-built Ilyushin II-76
23. A USAF C-130 Hercules.
24. The next big thing. A Predator UAV – Unmanned Air Vehicles have really come of age over Afghanistan.
25. The United Nations Mi-26 Halo.
Joint Force Harrier Page 23