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U.S. to lead Hungary-based airlift wing

Call it the airborne equivalent of a carpool with the Air Force in the driver’s seat.

That’s the idea behind a multinational heavy airlift wing that the U.S. is creating with 11 Eastern European countries. Together, the partners have purchased three C-17 Globemaster IIIs to fly both war and humanitarian missions.

The Heavy Airlift Wing activates July 27 in Papa, Hungary, as part of the Strategic Airlift Capability Project.

Besides the U.S. and Hungary, the other nations are Estonia, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Romania, Slovenia, Norway and the Netherlands.

All are members of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, where strategic airlift is at a premium. The European countries, though, couldn’t afford to operate transports like the C-17 on their own and had grown tired of depending on the U.S.

Despite the connection to NATO, the wing will operate independently of the military alliance between North American and European states. The number of missions each country directs will be dictated by how much manpower and money it invests. The U.S. has invested the most — 30 percent.

Of the force’s members, 41 will be U.S. airmen; the dollar amount contributed by American taxpayers is $250 million, the cost of one C-17.

The commander is U.S. Col. John D. Zazworsky and the vice commander is Col. Frederick Heden of Sweden. The top position will rotate among the four countries with the largest stakes in the wing: the U.S., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Missions, flown by multinational crews, will start weeks after the wing stands up, although all three C-17s haven’t arrived yet.

Zazworsky received the keys to the first C-17 on Wednesday after it rolled off Boeing’s production line in California. The second C-17 arrives in Hungary in September and the third in October, Zazworsky said.

The official goal is to average 3,500 flight hours over the first year, but Zazworsky is tempering expectations.

“Our ops tempo will be somewhat limited for at least the first year as we work things out,” he said.

The Strategic Airlift Capability steering committee, made up of a representative from each country and chaired by Zazworsky, will determine the missions.

Besides flying to Afghanistan, Zazworsky expects the wing will ferry NATO and European Union rapid response forces, as well as humanitarian missions to Africa.

Training, Zazworsky said, is a challenge because the U.S. is the only partner to own C-17s, although many airmen from the other countries have flown C-130s. The pilots and loadmasters have been training at Altus Air Force Base, Okla. Training rotations also will take place at Ramstein Air Base, Germany; McChord Air Force Base, Wash.; and Fort Dix, N.J.

Officials considered three locations to base the wing: Hungary, Romania and Ramstein. Hungary won out after it was determined Ramstein didn’t have enough space and the Romanian base needed too many infrastructural upgrades, Zazworsky said.

Airmen are starting to adapt to life in Papa, a rural community of 30,000. For most who can bring their families, the assignment will be a three-year one.

Not ‘standard Air Force job’

“It’s not going to be like Ramstein with thousands of Americans and all those restaurants ...” Zazworsky said. “This is not the standard Air Force job.”

There is no base exchange, commissary or base school. The town, though, has welcomed Zazworsky and his family, but the commander said that few locals speak English.

“It is bigger than the town near Altus, where they are doing all the training,” he said.

Capt. Havard Brorby of the Royal Norwegian Air Force will move to Papa in January. A loadmaster with thousands of hours of experience in C-130s, Brorby couldn’t be more excited to be one of the first Norwegians to help bring a heavy airlift capability to his country.

“It’s really important for Norway to be a part of this because it’s such a small country,” he said. “We would never be able to afford C-17s any other way.”