Balad remains one busy airfield

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brian Ferguson
  • U.S. Central Command Air Forces Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Aircraft pack the flightline here and operations are non-stop and intense. C-130 Hercules, MQ-1 Predators, F-16 Fighting Falcons and HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters all call this busy base home.

The men and women who support the aircraft say Balad has the busiest single-runway airfield in the Department of Defense.

One look and anyone can see this is probably true.

“The benefits of this forward operating airfield are immeasurable,” said Capt. Brian Chandler, 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron airfield operations flight commander. “Without this airfield, it would be much more difficult to be as effective as we are.”

To determine airfield flow, operators count the number of takeoffs, landings and over-flights that occur each day and add them together to get an operational total.

By having a forward operating location like Balad, the military reaches a level of efficiency that could not be achieved any other way, Captain Chandler said. This is why the base supports some of the most critical air operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

Balad supports combat and cargo operations, aeromedical evacuation missions and troop movements, to name a few.

Moreover, things are not slowing down. In the last couple of months, hub-and-spoke operations have taken hold at Balad. C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft drop off cargo and personnel at this hub. Then C-130s move the cargo and people to forward operating bases -- the spokes -- and return to Balad to do it all over again.

“This type of operation increases efficiency, using fewer aircraft and personnel,” Captain Chandler said. “It also increases our sorties by about 30 percent.”

By increasing in-theater C-130 missions, the Air Force has reduced the number of ground convoys and troops exposed to roadside bomb attacks.

The increase in sorties means an increase in work for the 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron’s maintainers who must keep these C-130s flying.

“Typically we do more sorties in a month here than we do in a year back in the States,” said 1st Lt. Byron Foster, maintenance unit officer in charge.

The “Triple-7” arrived at Balad in January, he said. Since then, its aircraft have flown more than 3,700 sorties, carrying more than 11,700 tons of cargo and transporting more than 54,200 people.

It is the active-duty and Reserve Airmen working together that gets the job done, providing safe, flyable aircraft, the lieutenant said.

With so many aircraft coming, going and flying over Balad, air traffic controllers work around the clock to keep military and civilian aircraft safe in the skies.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” said Chief Master Sgt. Bobby Posey, chief controller.

“Some 24 of our 26 controllers here are staff sergeants and below," the chief said. "Everything comes down to those young kids sitting in the combined en-route radar approach control facility and in the tower.”

On a daily basis, the controllers direct military and civilian aircraft and helicopters, as well as vehicles needing flightline access.

“The de-confliction of these aircraft allows military, civilian and tactical aircraft to use the same airspace -- in one of the most congested airspaces in the world,” Chief Posey said.

Captain Chandler said the future of forward projected joint combat airpower is at Balad.

“It all centers on the airfield, the busiest in the Air Force,” he said.