A C-146A has landed on a Latvian two-lane A9 freeway.
Within the night time between Might 10 and 11, 2022, a U.S. Particular Operations plane carried out freeway operations in western Latvia, marking the first-ever touchdown of a U.S. army plane on a Latvian freeway. As a part of the annual Trojan Footprint 22 multinational train, a U.S. Particular Operations Command C-146A Wolfhound, serial #12-3085, landed on the slender two-lane, A9 freeway close to Biksti, in western Latvia.
In keeping with the Latvian Public Broadcasting service, the placement for use as an improvised airstrip, spanning 900 meters, required round 2,000 kilometers of highway to be checked. Because the wingspan of the C-146 Wolfhound is 21 meters, whereas the width of the highway is 8.5 meters, to facilitate the touchdown, a number of highway indicators have been eliminated so the wings wouldn’t hit them, whereas a bus cease was used to show the plane round.
Latvian and @US_SOCEUR Forces executed the first-ever touchdown of a U.S. army plane on a Latvian two-lane A9 freeway, a part of the #TrojanFootprint 22 worldwide train, additional demonstrating interoperability with our #NATO Allies. #StrongerTogether #WeAreNATO 🇺🇸🇱🇻 pic.twitter.com/1KL09vYAxN
— U.S. Embassy Riga (@USEmbassyRiga) Might 12, 2022
The C-146A Wolfhound is the army model of the Dornier 328 turboprop commuter airliner, modified to allow cargo and personnel transport missions and constantly deployed since 2011. The plane can carry a most of 27 passengers, 6,000 kilos of cargo, or as much as 4 litter sufferers. Its fundamental mission is speedy responsive air mobility, and its customers are primarily particular operations forces, though the asset can transfer different members round from the Division of Protection, different authorities businesses in addition to host nationals. “The C-146A Wolfhound’s main mission is to offer U.S. Particular Operations Command versatile and responsive operational motion of small groups and cargo in assist of Theater Particular Operations Instructions. Airlift missions are performed by Air Pressure Particular Operations Command aircrews to ready and semi-prepared airfields world wide” says the U.S. Air Pressure web site.
The modifications from a baseline Dornier 328 embrace ARC-231, PRC-117, and Iridium communications suite, troop/cargo-capable cabin, casualty evacuation functionality and NVG compatibility.
General, 4 landings and 4 take offs have been carried out by the U.S. army plane that was concerned in a simulated extraction of a wounded army from a fight zone utilizing the improvised runway.
Throughout the Chilly Warfare freeway strips have been used to eliminate the runway dependency in case of nuclear battle; these days they’re used to function in all places from unpredictable areas and mission fight airpower nearer to the motion shortly. And that is the explanation why this sort of coaching has resumed.
The Michigan ANG’s 127th Wing’s A-10s have been the firsts to land on a freeway in Estonia throughout Saber Strike 16, 32 years after the final freeway train. Nonetheless, in August 2021, 4 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs of the Michigan ANG’s 127th Wing and two AFSOC C-146A Wolfhounds landed on the Michigan State Freeway M-32 close to Alpena, in what marked the first time in historical past the Air Pressure landed trendy plane on a civilian roadway in america, as a part of the Agile Fight Employment idea throughout train Northern Strike 21.
US Particular Operation Command C146A Wolfhound BAGGER3 departed Riga #Latvia. pic.twitter.com/vATTBmAaUG
— Manu Gómez (@GDarkconrad) Might 11, 2022
Primarily based on the flight monitoring web sites, after the freeway operations in Latvia, the C-146A flew to Krakow, in Poland, after which to Debrecen, Hungary.
Set to conclude on Might 13, Trojan Footprint 22 noticed U.S. Particular Operations Forces proactively work and practice along with NATO allies and European companions throughout Southeastern Europe, the Baltics and the Black Sea Area “to display their collective army readiness to deploy and reply to any disaster which will come up.” In keeping with the U.S. Army, this yr’s iteration of the drills included greater than 3,300 individuals from 30 nations, doubling in dimension from the earlier yr and making it the most important SOCEUR train thus far. Land, air and sea operations spanned throughout Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
David Cenciotti is a contract journalist primarily based in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse army aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, overlaying aviation, protection, battle, trade, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Pressure, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Pc Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
