My son-in-law was a SERE instructor two tours ago - he could give you an informed answer I am sure, if it were not very hush-hush. I think you are badly under selling it and there are more ways of killing a cat than drowning it in cream.

Yep, you can land on sand. Takeoff is a different story. When it takes near full power to taxi, the initial acceleration (if any) will be slow. I was grateful for the gap in the short trees at the other end. That was 4-up in a 172.

It could have been a very different story if the backup 130s got stuck.

Edit: Good thing they had the 295s

I’ll be honest, from all my previous SERE training and short stint in a CAOC, most of the SERE stuff seemed geared towards joint operations and highly likely to be US capability being the CSAR lead.

As a US taxpayer, I don’t care. The successful result is all I care about

Very brave rescue people. Respect to all.

In your opinion, what would a successful result look like?

getting the airman out with no casualties works for me

So it looks like the additional aircraft flown in weren't more C-130s. Logical if both the previous C-130s got bogged down. C-295W not Dash-8 though.

Ties in with post 4847: https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...l#post12064825https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8a19dcbbb9.png
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Pretty much what happened. I hope to never live in an era when costs creep into the decision making process of whether to an attempt a rescue.

In the 24 hrs to 5 April around 15 to 18 ships have passed through the SofH. This marks the highest traffic since early March.
Of note is that a number of these vessels have been carrying Iranian oil meaning that Iran is now exporting more oil in money terms than before the conflict began.

Some of you must remember Desert One from 1980...:ugh:

The RAF doesn't even do SAR any more, and hasn't since 2016.

I find Tousi TV is always on the money👍

As the RAF and NATO crews are not involved in this elective war, (the Bibbi-Donny Hubris Circus...) possibly a moot point.

The RAF, nor NATO would have the spare tin to throw at this activity:

• 1 x F15E
• 1 x F16
• 1 x A10C
• 2 x MH60
• 1 x MH6
• 2 x MC130J

(these being the indicated damaged or destroyed assets on this rescue)

to recover a single service member who would otherwise need to tolerate board and lodging provided by Iran. Iran is not the Taliban, each captured crew member adds to the bargaining power of Iran, but each one harmed while in captivity is adverse to the case Iran appears to be making. The case being made? Iran is not Israel. This case is being made by Israel, much to my frustration.
ROM, about 80+ troops were put in harms way, and fortunately no further lives were lost. Congress could reduce the risk of losses from the "no man left behind" policy by doing their job on kerning the actions of the wrecking ball that is the driver of this glorious excursion.

No chance - Tomcat down. Like the predecessor it will get an academy award for best sound editing.

In all seriousness though, a lot was asked from these men and women and they delivered under difficult circumstances.
It probably deserves a film and a few documentaries.

I would love to be a fly on the wall for the debrief.
From the number of aircraft lost, whether shot down or scuttled, clearly there were some unexpected challenges.
We may never know how close this came to being a failure, and thank goodness it wasn't.

How about concentrating on the positive side of this. I would have been delighted to know that my branch of the armed forces was prepared to go to this extent to pluck me out from big trouble as the US has.
This is part of what being in the military gang is about. Certainly an expensive rescue but this crew's families will be forever grateful.

All that was lost was kit. The military is structured in such a way that every part can be destroyed and replaced. So all that happened was the rescue team collapsed back to the rally point blowing up anything damaged as they went.
Think of it as returning the kit back to the tax payer.
Besides it's all small beer compared to the economic disaster that's about to befall us.

Very well done
 

Seriously good job on the Rescue!

Doubt many other (if any) Military would have been able to pull this off on their own.

I imagine the IRGC will have been all over the place-desperate to get their hands on any US Service personnel.

And yeah-would probably make a good film too!

Not a single military operation is a “sure thing”. Praise to all involved for the careful planing, courage, audacity and selflessness for conducting this rescue operation. “That Others May Live”.

Good perspectives. Thank you.
Ships have been scuttled since the dawn of time, and when you’re burning up to $2B per day, ageing aircraft are small change when faced with the consequences of losing an airman to the enemy.