He's doing a self lasing designation, so he has one bomb
and on the first pass doesn't go well.
It doesn't have the the the release bar coming, coming,
coming through. So he's going again and then on
the second pass he's targeting another part of the space.
So we, when you compare the two, the two things, you see that the
waypoint is there, gating is a bit off or whatever, but it's
off by maybe 100 metres, 600 feet maybe.
But the picture is not the same. And at the time you get the
British platoon which is manoeuvring inside the very
small valet. And here it's targeting a kind
of a barrack which is on the upper ground and the bomb goes
there, but it's not the, the intended target place the MP.
And then I mean, it blast over the British soldiers, nobody's
hurt and it stops. So they send, they send the 2
ship back to the Kaia. Then there's a big debrief and
there was some learning for everybody there.
I mean, with a head up display systems or whatever, I mean you
feel you're confident you're good, but it's not enough.
I mean, you're coming from somewhere to say, OK, they're
bad guys. You don't dive in, set up the
attack mode and and target something.
I mean with friendlies on the ground, you need to be better
than that and really see where they are, what they want.
Maybe make them move bad because you will get some rings of
employment for Tropic contact for normal stuff.
So, I mean, this is very precise and yeah, it's old school.
You have binoculars, a pod and and two pairs of of eyes are are
better. At the time the, the guy was
flying with the the US Navy guy and he sends the guy to the
tanker. So the American dude is not
there when the guy is speaking English with the extra pair of
eyes. He has no laser pod because he's
not qualified, but still. So back to my first feeling.
Wanted to drop is not the right answer in combat.
Benji, welcome back to 10% True for the third instalment.
What lucky people we are. Thank you for joining us again.
Thank you for having me for the for the last time, Steve.
So Part 1, you talked about your journey to the cockpit.
You talked about your rationale behind picking Mirage F1 as the
aeroplane you wanted to go to. Even though you were at the top
of your class. You probably could have picked
Rafael or Mirage 2000 or any, any, any of the options that
were available to you. Part 2, you talked about going
then to combat in The Mirage F1 and then you talked about moving
across and doing exchange with the Navy and flying the Super E.
We wrapped up I think at the end of the last episode.
Then at the point where you were just about to go and deploy, I
think it was 2007 in the Super F on Dad to Afghanistan and work
with the Rafael's. So that seems like a good place
to pick things up. You did give us a really good
description of what the Super he was like to fly.
You described in the last episode some of the technical
limitations that the aeroplane had or the fact it was a 1950s,
nineteen 60s Aerojet and so had some intrinsic limitations to
it. But maybe it's worth a quick
recap then of what the aeroplane was capable of then when you
went in 2007 to Afghanistan to support operations out there
working with the Rafaels, what was what were the capabilities
just briefly of the aeroplane just so people don't have to go
back to that part and listen to it again if if they don't
remember it. Yeah, so to summit up, I, I
joined the Navy in 2005, car calls end of 2005 and deploying
for the first time 2006 for for for month and a half deployment
to Afghanistan. At the time the the aircraft is
called Standard 4, which is an upgrade for the earlier version
and the one that did the Kosovo conflict life force.
What's new in the aircraft RWR, They are equipped with the
Sherlock LWR and normal or an old style.
So Sherlock was designed for The Mirage F1 city, but at the time
the, the city is already into the Eagle Egg RWR.
So this is the version I flew in my early days on the F1 city.
So it's a nice DRFM stuff. Steel.
The the Super eternal is a kind of a multi roll aircraft, but
it's one roll at a time. So you can do Ricky or gunning
or lasing or nuke or slick bomb or exoset, but you cannot do
both at the same times because in the middle of the the
aircraft there is a kind of a big cube that you need to get in
and out with the right version. So it's very specialised for
that. So was good for the French Navy
because between the the F8 and the Rafael F1, there's nothing
so you can do a limited air to air or whatever you can you you
get the multi role that you want from the carrier, but still it's
not the Rafael FF2 full up of the of the Rafael F3 because on
the air to wear, I mean the red eyes, what it is, it's no look,
look down, shut down. Autopilot is a bit limited.
So it's OK. And this is the I mean the
second deployment to Afghanistan they did around I was not there
in 2003 or 4 and then we are coming back in 2006 operation is
named Eraklas. Eraklas, yes.
So this is this is mostly the the scenery and how does it
work? First you get everybody called,
then you do a new system campaign for a week or two
before Christmas and after Christmas everybody, everybody
flies to, to the carrier. One special thing is that the
French Navy is able to fly VFR above 400 to and from the
carrier. So you can just take off and
cruise above everybody else, talk to nobody and go to the
carrier, which they don't do is just in in case of need.
But the, the operational environment allows that the new
land and you start to trend. So you do one or two weeks in
front of Toulon, the Med just to get everybody in shape.
And then you, you start to transit Corsica and you have
interactions with Greece, Egypt. Then you cross the Suez Canal,
which is always very interesting.
I mean, you enter very early in the morning, like 45 AM, all the
aircraft are on the deck. It's super hot.
And you run, people run, they do a sport because it's an offline
day. And by, by noon or 2:00 PM,
you're just, you're just out of the, the canal.
And then you, you carry on in the through the Red Sea exercise
with the Saudis all the time. Nice.
I was deployed 1 as a legend officer in Tabuk.
So in the 15C squadrons. And then you end up flying
against Djibouti because it's it's a Frencher's base strong.
Also you do, we did things against the 2000s and then port
calling Djibouti 3-5 days maximum.
This is the first one. The thing is with the nuclear
carriers, you never go to a port.
I mean, in my time we did a 72 days straight between the two
port call. Well that that's more than two
months without seeing the land. So it's, I mean, you don't need
the fuel. The fuel is is brought by by
supply ships. They come on the side, they
bring the aviation fuel, but the carrier doesn't need any fuel.
So it's kind of kind of long. So a bit of rest in Djibouti and
then aid straight in front of Pakistan as a whole to start the
operations in Afghanistan, which are at the time not ramping up.
What, what does it look like? Mostly it's first you need to go
to Afghanistan. So you launch, you meet up with
either Rafael F1 with a buddy buddy because the Rafael F1 at
the time has no air to ground capability.
So they are just the tankers of the sky.
So at most they cross the border of Afghanistan to say, I've been
there. And then they turn around, climb
Block 5 and and go back to the to the carrier.
So this is it. So you need to do buddy, buddy.
It's roughly an hour, an hour and 15 minutes before the
border. And then you try to top up as
far as possible and reach the first tanker, which was on the
first campaign, mostly a French tanker.
So a guy coming from Manas, Kyrgyzstan, Bischkek coming to
the South picks us up and then you do your Riki, you do your
closer support mission, mostly with a tanker dedicated, which
is easy because you just have to climb or if you again.
So extending the the play time and there are not so many
players in 2006. It's it's kind of quite and
mostly the mission are to the South of Kendall are Gastny in
the Elman valet. We see the building of a Kemper
bastion, this kind of stuff. It's really the Elman valet
stuff 2006 And then after when you're done, we go to the Gulf,
a bit of a work with the UAE and then come back Djibouti again.
And that's four months and a half.
That's a that's a that's a lot. Nothing is going on in 2006,
2007 a bit more tough and and complicated. 1st we get an
exchange pilot, F-14 Tomcat pilot, U.S.
Navy guys galleries, great guy. So I feel the integration with
the, the US car here in, in the carrier box South of Pakistan is
a bit better. So we, we, we, we leap more, we
cross deck, we go there for a day, they come have a bit of
wine, then they come back and so a bit better.
And on the ground the situation is, is really ramping up.
So we have our Squadron Leader dropping first middle of March
doesn't go super well. The carrier is on hold for 2-3
days. Nobody's hurt on the ground, but
it's been a close call for friendlies.
And, and then we, we carry on and we start again the, the
missions and it's everywhere. So you can go northeast of
Kabul, you can go. I mean, we see that the the the
enemy is really active. And my story, not my story, but
what's funny is that at the time we get the Rafael F2 coming on
board, but only with a small capability named echo capability
Echo meaning limited air to ground.
I mean, the Rafael flu in 86 was introduced as just an air to air
with Nomika infrared for it. Just magic tools.
And then it's switching to multi role with, with new systems.
But at the time in 2007, it's able to drop GBO 12.
But it's not an integrated capability, meaning that in the
superior or in the lazing aircraft, you need to time the
the bomb delivery. So you fake the, the, the, the
launching point, you call for 321, pickle the pickle the
bombs, bombs away and then you take the laser for you.
So it just they just push the button and, and drop the GBA 12
live. So they are really your wingman.
So we got the Rafael F1 doing the tanking and now you're
bringing either super E or Rafael F2, but with a limited
capability. And there's a bit of a challenge
with the French Air Force, which is deployed in Manas with the
same capability, doing the same with 2000 DS.
So we do both from the South, the Navy, from the north, the
Air Force. And that's funny because the,
the godfather of my son is in the opposite deployment.
So, well, I'm calling him, I say, are we going to drop?
I'm going to drop whatever. It's just, it's just funny.
And it, it, it will happen to be to be us the, the Navy.
And how does it work? Well, everybody was looking for
that because the Rafael had to be employed operationally.
It's a good selling point. And to say, OK, now we are
entering the, the era of the, of the multi rule.
And so I'm flying with the with the skipper of the 12 Elf so
squadron #12 Tom. We crossed the border and then
they sent us to a troop in contact with British guys.
We see some hires dropping. So from 50 miles away in the pod
I see, I see smoke, whatever we come above and and they leave
the frequency we reach out to see to.
We don't know what's going on seems to be quite and then the
C2 sends us to support Dutch special forces in the the
keypad. Everything is keypad there.
So they have numbers and later so 86CI and we start working
with them. They've been attacked and the
first one is going to be a pickup truck, brand new Land
Rover Land Cruiser. So dropping one, destroying the
the pickup and then they want another one on a compound and we
reset on the second one. So it goes pretty, pretty fast.
I mean it's they are less than than 3 minutes before the first
one and the second one and on the second one because there is
no autopilot and I'm a bit busy lazy.
They, they brought another 2 sheep above and I'm in the
process of calling for the, the bomb release and I look up and
my aircraft has been starting to climb.
So I call for, for Rome, the guy I say Rome climb because I was
climbing and they were just above.
So I mean the, the admin part could have caught up very, very
easily. Stabilising levelling of
dropping the bomb makes short and and then and then we leave
back. Very interesting at the time.
There's an issue on the Rafael that they saw in during the the
transit from France to the chaos because they didn't start with
us. They rejoin us in the Red Sea
because they were still developing the, the capability
and they had an engine frame out on the left engine by memory at
5 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds left engine goes out on the
transit. OK, They, they looked at that,
didn't see anything. And then we are out of the, the
target getting all the fuel we can.
It's already a long mission. We come back to the, to the
carrier where in the corridor. The corridor is the kind of a
big tube which is inside the Pakistani airspace.
And then the Rafael flames out again.
And the Rafael contrary to most of the aircraft doesn't relight
IR fast, it relights slow. So we are transiting let's say
340 and then we call for emergency descent.
It's going to, we're going to relight at 16,000 feet going
down. So we exit the corridor into the
civilian air space. There's an Air France guy who is
there who's making the radio relay with Karachi control
because we cannot do it. Then relighting.
And then we make a kind of a safety, I mean a straightening
trap for the Rafael and then the night trap.
And everybody's happy except that there is a French Air Force
guy inside, inside the, the 2 ship.
So the, the Navy is, I would say really is kind of the, the
debate if they need to be happy or not because it's not a full
Navy thing. It's a, it's a joint.
So kind of kind of tough. But you get to the, the deputy
of the joint chief, I mean, writing an e-mail saying, hey,
guys, you did good. It was, it was OK, but still a
very, very busy mission on this one.
It was 28th of March 2007. And and then the the mission
carries on and the guy is dropping.
If we come back to the admin can kill you in combat operation.
I mean normally you say the first cause of death is the
wingman and then it's the surface to air.
Kind of a rule of thumb. Another story which happened to
me was we were transiting 4 ship 4 Superintenda with the KC 10 N
of Kabul. The KC 10 has an issue with the
pump and say hey guys, I'm unable to refuel because the we,
we, we have something going on. So we only refuel in case of
emergency. OK, stand by.
We are almost ready to divert to Kabul.
And then I look at my fuel and then the Super E, there is
something which really weird, which is if you burn some of the
fuel on the back tanks, you cannot refuel them again ever in
flight. I mean they are gone for good.
And I have a valve which is stuck open or closed or
whatever. When I look, when I do the
assessment, I have left 1.1 tonne unable to refuel more than
1.5 tonne instead of the 4.3 which is normal.
So I declare an emergency and I say OK the.
The my #3 with the deputy of the squadron, I would say it's not
helping me much. Say, yeah, divert to Kabul.
We don't care. OK, so we all turn around.
Yeah, this is how it is very friendly, but not I like the
Navy guys, but he was not. And then we turn around and the
plan is, well, the tanker is going to drag us, me over at the
carrier 5000 feet, which is what happened at the end.
But with all that first kind of emergency for the KC 10 and us,
we turn back and we don't change level, which is normally odd and
even. You're going north, you're going
South. Well, my wingman is calling for
radar contact, 20 miles head, whatever.
And we look at that and it's a prowler and we are inside the
block and the prowler is just crossing 200 feet below under
the KC10 with four super ES on the side.
Why? Because we didn't climb or we
didn't descent and everybody forgot it.
So I mean, this deconfliction stuff happen.
I have another one. I mean, I almost died taking MQ
9 inside the refuelling truck north of Mazarishali for one
day. I'm there on the wing.
I just descend a bit to go centre line in AKC 135 and there
is a Ripper just crossing under. Yeah.
So it's you see that the the environment is full of metal.
I mean everybody and, and it, it's becoming complicated really
because people are shooting ground to ground.
So you have to avoid some keypad to do a show of force.
You go 3 keypads away, go down, start low level, which is the
most unsafe position, do your show of force and go to another
keypad climb again. You get medevac helicopters
crossing while you're dropping. I mean, it's it's all over the
place. So I would say it's good to do
combat, but it's great to survive it and watch out for all
the guys there. I mean bigger beginning for for
situation awareness on this one all the time.
Wow. So these are in short, my, my
stories of yeah, of Afghanistan with the with the Super League,
which was in, I would say nice aircraft, but that's why we
well, they deployed them underground in 2008 because in
2008 the carrier is is done for maintenance goes every of 678
years. Whatever you need to to do stuff
on it at least I mean scrub the deck, repair the repair the deck
paint, but also things with the nuclear reactor.
So we going to deploy them. I'm not part of the deployment,
but I'm in charge of the transit from as I told you from
previously, we do Landy Visio, Brittany to Constanza with a
tanker stop in Romania and then we end over them over the border
and the landing. Canada are at the time they are
now in standard 5 plus, which means we get the knee pad and we
get the the VHF radio encrypted to be able to to talk secure
with the guys on the ground without being half quick or
crypto. It's already crypto equipped,
but not VHF, so a bit better. And on the way back we bring
back the raffles which were encounter also at this time F2
full capability and we we bring them back to France straight 3/3
are file with a French Air Force KC135 and it was in fact the
first stepper shore deployment for the French Navy since
Indochina. Really.
Yeah, which is quite remarkable because in a way, I mean being
on the ground, I mean you can, and Kander R is the the perfect
example. You can take off and drop 10
minutes after in the 30 miles range of Kander R because
there's and there have been a rocket attack and, and and they
have the location and you just do that when you far, far, far
away with the carrier. It's good because you have the
kind of the freedom of action. You can move around.
You don't need any diplomatic clearance Yes, but still with no
tanker, you don't go anywhere because the buddy buddy
capability doesn't offer you the the play time that that you
need. So I, I thought at the time it
was smart to to deploy the Super ES to Kandahar and they were
they were also, I mean a bit ahead of the Air Force,
honestly, because they were it was the first employment of the
GPU 49. So it's, it's a G B12 with AGPS
capability and I mean allows you to to drop on coordinates or to
lay something which is which is moving.
And at the time, I mean the, the 2000 DS and the the Rafael, I
think they added by maybe 2010 or 11.
So the Navy is kind of a start up.
You get 2 squadrons and 1/2 very small, but it's very agile.
I mean, you identify something, you bring the technician, you
deal with it and then it's on the aircraft.
It's experimental, but still it works.
Air Force stuff is bigger. I mean, it's procurement.
You have a need, you build a capability, you test it,
whatever. And then at 10 years down the
road, you're still you, you don't have it.
I mean, they, they were very agile for that.
And then it was the the end for me 2008 last flight coming back
to I went to the to the Academy. So find The Mirage F1 again
Captain TB 10 and and I was it end of the my Navy stuff.
Still have my buddies my Bros.