Pitching In

Sea-going helicopters will help relieve the operational load faced by U.S. Army ground forces in Iraq

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

The Navy is taking additional steps to shoulder a portion of the warfighting burden carried in large part by U.S. ground forces in Iraq. Several Navy helicopter units are preparing for duty in Iraq as troop transporters or medical evacuation units, and will transition to Iraq over the next year.

The Navy units are assigned now to antisubmarine duties and as onboard delivery support helicopters for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. The transition to Iraq will require training for the crews and refurbishment of their helicopters.

The commitment of helicopters is one way the Navy is making good on the initiatives of Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations — and his predecessor, Adm. Vern Clark — to find ways the service can help lighten the load on the Army and Marine Corps, which have been steadily engaged in combat and insurgency operations since October 2001.

The reassignments are in addition to the several recent moves by the Navy to provide the nation’s regional combatant commanders with a variety of new capabilities for the global war on terrorism. These include the reconstitution of its brown-water combat capability, new units trained for ground combat operations and improved intelligence capabilities.

One of the Navy units destined for Iraq is Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Four (HC-4), based at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily, which is going through tactical training and modification of its MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters — the largest in the Navy — in preparation for deployment early next year in support of an unspecified Army unit.

Cmdr. Robert Buckingham, HC-4 executive officer, said part of the squadron would deploy to Iraq early next year, “then the personnel will be swapped out. The aircraft will remain in theater” for the next contingent from HC-4.

The decision to send HC-4 to Iraq was made by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, a Pentagon panel that coordinates how worldwide requirements for forces can be met, Buckingham said.

HC-4 is a one-of-a-kind squadron originally established for the vertical onboard delivery role — hauling cargo and personnel between ships and shore stations — in the Mediterranean in support of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. The squadron used to fly CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters until they were needed for the Marine Corps, and now flies the MH-53E, the same version used by two other Navy squadrons to sweep sea mines.

The two helicopter types generally are similar, the main difference being the presence of permanent fuel sponsons, rather than detachable external fuel tanks, on the MH-53E. The two types have identical lift capabilities, somewhat greater than the CH-47 Chinook, the Army’s largest helicopter.

HC-4 normally hauls cargo in benign environments, although it has been involved in the evacuation of embassy personnel from countries wracked by internal strife. Its helicopters are armed with two XM-218 .50-caliber machine guns for defensive purposes. To operate in Iraq, they will be fitted with a machine gun on the rear cargo ramp, one of several modifications required for the helicopters to operate in a hostile environment, Buckingham said.

A team led by Naval Air Systems Command is modifying the Sea Dragons for duty in Iraq. A ramp-mounted GAU-21 .50-caliber machine gun — built by Belgium’s Fabrique Nationale — already had been certified for use on the CH-53E and was easily adapted to the MH-53E. However, the team put the machine gun through testing on the MH-53E to ensure airflow around the large fuel sponsons did not affect the separation of shell casings from the helicopter as the guns were fired.

The helicopters also are being fitted with ALE-47/AAR-47 missile-warning and countermeasures equipment to defeat such threats as man-portable surface-to-air missiles. The cabin and cockpit floorboards will be reinforced with ballistic armor to protect against small-arms fire. The gunmetal gray paint on the helicopters is being made more subdued to make them less visible.

As a safety measure, “We’ll be flying mostly at night,” Buckingham said. However, the helicopters are not configured for night-vision devices. The cockpits are equipped with red lights, which improve unaided night vision but hamper the use of night-vision devices.

Marine Capt. Tom Page, avionics systems project officer for the Navy’s MH-53 program, said green lighting is being installed in the cockpit instrument panels to allow for use of night-vision devices.

The cockpit modifications were the most challenging part of the effort, Page said. “We’re dealing with technology that dates from the ’60s and was upgraded in the early ’80s.” Today, however, there are a limited number of manufacturers for the panels installed on the MH-53s.

L-3 Communications Integrated Systems Joint Operations Group in Lexington, Ky., was hired to upgrade the panels. One small panel for the night-vision cockpit is no longer in the supply system.

“They have to be made. We’re waiting for one panel for the modification to be complete. As technology becomes obsolete, it’s harder and harder to find people that do those projects. It’s the little things that are hard to find as systems get older,” Page said.

He said the Navy has accelerated the installation of other planned upgrades to the MH-53s, including improved radios and Global Positioning System capability.

HC-4 sent three of its helicopters to Norfolk, Va., for modification. The remaining five are being modified in Sigonella. The total cost of the modifications is $5 million, according to John Milliman, a spokesman for the Naval Air Systems Command.

The Navy hopes to modify the entire 34-aircraft MH-53E fleet, said Page, “but right now we don’t have funding for that. We’d like to get to a common configuration across the entire type.”

HC-4 personnel are going through extra training to prepare for their new operating environment. Using three MH-53Es positioned in Yuma, Ariz., the aircrews are being trained by Marine Air Weapons & Tactics Squadron One.

A Marine Corps Reserve CH-53E squadron has been training HC-4 pilots in the use of night-vision goggles, devices which the squadron pilots have never used before. The squadron’s personnel, including maintenance specialists, are receiving training in skills such as firing M16 rifles and driving Humvees — tasks not required at their home field in Sicily.

Buckingham, who will lead the squadron’s second contingent in Iraq, said the morale of his squadron is “real high. This squadron was scheduled to decommission until last year when this decision was made. It was a big morale boost.”

Many squadron members extended their projected rotation date in HC-4 to make the deployment, he added.

As HC-4 prepares for duty in Iraq, it is changing its homeport from Sigonella to Norfolk, Va. The move by summer 2006 is part of the downsizing and consolidation of U.S. facilities in Europe.

Absent additional assignments to Iraq or elsewhere, the aircraft will be sent back to Norfolk when the deployment is complete. Their future mission remains uncertain, Buckingham said.

Three other Navy helicopter squadrons are preparing for duty with the Army in Iraq, primarily in a medical evacuation role. Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, based on Guam, will send a detachment of MH-60S helicopters for six months, followed by a similar detachment from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21 (HSC-21), based at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif. Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron 15 from Jacksonville, Fla., will send a detachment of HH-60H helicopters for a six-month period, to be succeeded by a second detachment from the same unit.

“We have had some specialized training based on some inputs we’ve gotten from the Army,” said Cmdr. David M. Groff, commanding officer of HSC-21. “We’ve done some training at El Centro [Calif.] in a desert-type environment, [including] desert landings.”

The upcoming deployments have motivated the Navy to accelerate some of the planned upgrades for the MH-60S by approximately one year, Groff said. Aerial survivability improvements such as chaff and flare dispensers to counter antiaircraft systems are being installed. His squadron is not planning on carrying any armament on its helicopters for the medical evacuation role.

Groff said his detachment’s flight personnel “are going through a basic desert peacetime detention/hostage survival training course that they would not normally go through.”

The detachment’s maintenance personnel also are receiving training particular to the desert operating area.

HSC-21 had to schedule its training around its unexpected commitment of five aircraft for the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims along the U.S. Gulf Coast in September. Groff credits the enthusiasm of his personnel for the relief effort and the upcoming deployment for getting both jobs done.

All of the HSC-21 personnel headed for Iraq are volunteers. “They are enthusiastic for doing what we view as an expanding mission for us, something we anticipate doing in the future,” Groff said.