R/e AC-130s - there are actually a few there - at least one is the AC-130W Stinger - which tellingly - carries the AGM 136.
Designed for close air support in urban environments.
Personally, I think it'll be a miracle if they get everyone out without losing an aircraft to ground fire or a manpad, despite what the Taliban might say.

Hindsight is never flogging arms to any third world countries in the first place because it always comes back to bite you. Promise to defend them for a budget by all means, but dont supply or put weaponary into those countries.

This chap seems pretty upset…

Twitter

The ending to RAFEng'svideo.

Crikey, when you watch that video you can see that as well as the main gear, they were actually holding onto the nose gear doors, some may have been in the wheel wells.... wasn't obvious when run at normal speed.
Horrific - but no question you'd have to make some rapid military decisions on the flight deck and go regardless of the consequences.
Do C-17s have external cameras that look back at the airframe from the wings?
Tried to google - but unclear.
Assume that the Apaches would be telling the crew they had people hanging off the jet.

The first crew might have not been aware but following crews would, I take it has sunk in to the heads of those on the airfield watching that depart it was a bad idea, the trouble is in doing that they are actually acting against their chances of getting away as they are stopping jets from departing and landing.

As expected, sadly.

Body of dead Afghan found in landing gear of military jet leaving Kabul airport - POLITICO

That sounds very noble and idealistic, but have you really thought that through?

Don’t sell arms to any third world country (do we still use that?)? So you would deny them the means to defend themselves? And of course that would need all countries to do the same. Good luck persuading China, Russia, France etc with that.

But my main question - you seem to suggest they could pay the west to defend them? Really, or have I misunderstood?

Seems the pax were aware at least.
Video online of person outside tied to aircraft - taken from inside the jet at altitude.
Ghastly.

I see the more forces are being flown the Kabul to help control the airfield but how on earth are they going to extract them at the end of the operation? Surely as they start to pull out, the crowds will get more desperate and the forces to control them will be less.

C130s (needing less runway length to be kept clear) and then the last few hundred by helicopter to Pakistan, I should imagine with some form of collapsing perimeter to a rooftop HLS for crowd control purposes :hmm:

Or, hard as this might be for some to stomach, a deal which sees the Taliban controlling the airfield perimeter in return for humanitarian aid or talks leading to diplomatic recognition. In the long run that might be seen as wiser.

It’s a conundrum. In some ways, getting the Taliban to take charge of the airport seems the better option. A chance for them to show they are in authority and if any civilians got hurt in the process it would be down to them, they have fewer compunctions in this regard. I see some snags though. There are probably a lot of people on the airfield that they have an interest in and they might want a say in who goes and stays as part of the deal, and they might want “departure fees”

Using own forces keeps control in “allied” hands but there may be a price. If crowd pressure mounts as we saw in the clips of the C-17 trying to taxi, there will come a point where shots will be fired which will not play well in the media. Perhaps now would be a good time to buy shares in razor wire?

Still, enough armchair strategy, I am sure “they” have a plan.

Which seems strange that they decided to pull out of Bagram beforehand, as surely that would have been an easier option to defend to the final pullout than what is a civilian airport closer to the urban districts......but I suppose this just highlights the US gross miss-calculation of likely events timeline...?

The new "government" will eventually clear everyone from the airport - they need it themselves..... right now they're probably too busy freeing their mates and rounding up the more obvious opponents as well as trying to make sure everything keeps running - food,water, electricity.

The pictures of mob scenes at the airport don't rebound on them yet so its not a priority

In a way, the Ukraine did a deal with the UK and US that if they surrendered their massive supplies of Nuclear weapons we would both protect them, sadly we both welshed on the deal.

One thing that comes out of this is the UK Governement have got away with this lightly, imagine the repercussions if the runway at Brize was still out of action.

I have seen a few well-meaning comments elsewhere sympathising with the transport crews, saying how terrible this must be for them. It is certainly unusual for them to be faced directly with the kinds of "take life to save life" choices faced by the combat arms, but I don't think that framing their choices as "terrible" or "horrific" is helpful. The opposite. I write from the perspective of someone who's taken such decisions.

How each of them deals with it is going to be a personal choice. If it were me, I'd take the view that anyone hanging onto the outside of my aircraft has their own agency and the consequences of their choices are reasonably foreseeable to them. Their choices don't get to affect the prospects of those being evacuated in my aircraft. We go, regardless. That being so, I would not want a camera or an Apache telling me there were people hanging off the outside, and I wouldn't attempt to correlate videos of people falling with any sorties I might have flown. So please don't tell me how terrible or horrific the decision to go "must" have been, because as far as I'm concerned it wasn't, and I don't appreciate the implication that I'm an emotionless psychopath.

My personal take. Others will differ. Hopefully those looking out for the crews (whether colleagues, commanders, friends or family) will avoid clumsy one-size-fits-all approaches. Maybe someone can tell us how train drivers are counselled after on-track suicides? I'm willing to bet that no-one tells them "that must have been horrific"...

I am sure that the runway at Brize was very rapidly deemed fit for use. But I do admire the innate ability of some to pick out the trivia!

very well said