Center fights for safer Afghan airspace

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. James Madeiros
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing
KABUL, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  Representatives from the Regional Air Movement Control Center arrived here May 16 to discuss airspace safety with aviation officials and civilian aircraft operators who fly over and within Afghanistan.

The center has its headquarters at a forward-deployed air base in Southwest Asia. It is an Air Force entity that controls air traffic in Afghanistan and, as of March, Iraq. To ensure safety for flights in, out and within these countries, center officials assign air routes, altitudes, and arrival and departure slot times at selected airfields.

The purpose of the three meetings between the U.S. Embassy, the International Security Assistance Force and Ariana Airlines, was for center officials to meet and address growing concern over airspace parameters regarding flying over Afghanistan.

“Our goal is to achieve a better flight environment in Afghanistan,” said Maj. Dean Steele, RAMCC chief of Afghanistan operations. “RAMCC supported Operation Enduring Freedom, initially, but then attention shifted wholly to Iraq. There is still a lot of work to do in Afghanistan.”

Center officials have established a system to control commercial, humanitarian, military transport and combat flights. As such, it is imperative that everyone follows procedures.

“It’s a procedural system,” said Steele. “If people don’t follow the procedures, safety breaks down. You have an uncontrolled airspace.”

Military officials know the civilian routes and altitudes, but civilian aircraft pilots have no knowledge of military routes that require their adherence to pre-designated routes, altitudes and slot times.

“Combat operators know where civilian flights are supposed to be, but when (civilian aircraft) go outside those routes, they don’t know,” said Col. Erik Hearon, RAMCC director. “When you see a bowl of spaghetti, think of the airspace over Afghanistan, because that’s what it’s like.”

Occasionally, civilian aircraft pilots fail to follow the parameters set forth by center officials. Violations include altitude deviations, route deviations and not meeting slot times, among others. When this occurs, it means civilian aircraft are unintentionally entering into a web of invisible military flight paths. The threat of a midair collision is very real, and inevitable over time, center officials said.

“A near air collision between a German C-130 and a (United Nations) aircraft brought the situation to the front,” Steele said.

In the chain of events that could lead to a collision, airspace coordinators at every point in the process of air traffic control looked at what they could do to make flying safer.

“Communications are the biggest problem between RAMCC and Kabul International Airport control,” said German air force Lt. Col. Theis Voigt, chief of air operations at KIA. “Simple problems like telephone reception limit ability to coordinate.”

While center officials are responsible for establishing the parameters for safe flying, Voigt and his staff are responsible for ensuring airspace operators are observing rules within KIA airspace.

KIA is one of the airfields that coordinate with the RAMCC for the slot times to keep air traffic moving in an orderly fashion. Its size and location in the capital city gives it prominence in terms of airflow.

Currently, the only radar monitoring air traffic are military airborne warning and control system aircraft and ground radars at Kandahar and Bagram. There is no air traffic control provided by Afghanistan’s ministry of civil aviation and tourism, and only the RAMCC serves as a variation of the federal aviation authority for the country.

“AWACS was never meant to be used for air traffic control,” said Hearon. “It is for combat use. It will be taken away, and following procedures will be even more important.”

The Combined Forces Air Component commander and RAMCC officials are working toward putting Afghanistan in control of its own airspace. For that to become a reality, airspace users and coordinators must demonstrate an ability to adhere to, and enforce, regulations.

“Restructuring of the airspace is the highest priority in the civil and military flight community,” said Hearon. “Flight safety is a community concern.”

Safe flight over Afghanistan is only one piece of the process that will allow for the rebuilding of the country.

“The ongoing and mostly unheralded efforts of U.S. and coalition forces toward rebuilding have a long ways to go,” Hearon said. “The coalition effort to rebuild Afghanistan will be a long but necessary process.”