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9th Oct 2006, 08:19
Telegraph Article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/09/wiraq09.xml)
RAF Hercules transport aircraft are flying secret missions into the heart of insurgent territory in Iraq to re-supply long range desert patrols.
Up to three sorties a week are being flown into Maysan province. The large but agile aeroplanes land on hastily constructed airstrips to deliver food, fuel and ammunition to cavalry soldiers operating far from friendly bases.
The missions have enabled troops from the Queen's Royal Hussars battlegroup to double the time spent watching the porous border with Iran for smugglers carrying bombs, guns and cash to fuel the insurgency in Iraq.
Flying mostly at night from Qatar, the C130 Hercules land on runways made by Royal Engineers on dried lake beds, roads or abandoned airstrips.
"We never land in the same place twice," a pilot said. "The locals would be waiting for us if we went back."
Soldiers on patrol along the border began relying on the air re-supply after British troops pulled out of Camp Abu Naji, in the lawless town of Al Amarah, in August.
Senior RAF officers said the Army requested the covert re-supply effort so that they could regain their "freedom of manoeuvre" and avoid getting pinned down in fixed bases that were mortared daily.
An Army officer in Iraq said the drops had allowed elements of the 600-strong Queen's Royal Hussars group to remain in the desert for up to a month.
Fluorescent strips that are visible only to the pilots mark the landing zones for the four-engine aircraft. On the ground, the Hercules keep their engines running and loadmasters push out cargo and unload any passengers in under nine minutes.
The RAF is also using parachute air drops in Afghanistan to resupply isolated "platoon houses" after road moves became too dangerous.
Flt Lt Michael Crook, a Hercules pilot recently returned from two successful parachuting missions, said the planes descended at speed from cruising altitude to under 500ft to avoid ground fire, but still managed to "bulls-eye" the supply drops.
RAF Hercules transport aircraft are flying secret missions into the heart of insurgent territory in Iraq to re-supply long range desert patrols.
Up to three sorties a week are being flown into Maysan province. The large but agile aeroplanes land on hastily constructed airstrips to deliver food, fuel and ammunition to cavalry soldiers operating far from friendly bases.
The missions have enabled troops from the Queen's Royal Hussars battlegroup to double the time spent watching the porous border with Iran for smugglers carrying bombs, guns and cash to fuel the insurgency in Iraq.
Flying mostly at night from Qatar, the C130 Hercules land on runways made by Royal Engineers on dried lake beds, roads or abandoned airstrips.
"We never land in the same place twice," a pilot said. "The locals would be waiting for us if we went back."
Soldiers on patrol along the border began relying on the air re-supply after British troops pulled out of Camp Abu Naji, in the lawless town of Al Amarah, in August.
Senior RAF officers said the Army requested the covert re-supply effort so that they could regain their "freedom of manoeuvre" and avoid getting pinned down in fixed bases that were mortared daily.
An Army officer in Iraq said the drops had allowed elements of the 600-strong Queen's Royal Hussars group to remain in the desert for up to a month.
Fluorescent strips that are visible only to the pilots mark the landing zones for the four-engine aircraft. On the ground, the Hercules keep their engines running and loadmasters push out cargo and unload any passengers in under nine minutes.
The RAF is also using parachute air drops in Afghanistan to resupply isolated "platoon houses" after road moves became too dangerous.
Flt Lt Michael Crook, a Hercules pilot recently returned from two successful parachuting missions, said the planes descended at speed from cruising altitude to under 500ft to avoid ground fire, but still managed to "bulls-eye" the supply drops.