In the words of a U.S. military official at the time, "The HAW is starting to make a real difference in moving missions to Iraq and Afghanistan." [12]
Though two months before, the HAW flew a C-17 Globemaster III into the Afghan capital of Kabul "with military representatives from all 28 NATO member states as well as those from the 14 non-NATO nations who also contribute forces to ISAF." [13]
Last April it was announced that the U.S.-NATO Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa had "recently moved 2.1 million pounds of equipment essential to surge operations supporting the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
"The international wing has been part of the operation to move more than 6
million pounds of basic expeditionary airfield resources, or BEAR materiel, to build six forward operating bases supporting 3,500 people...." [14]
In June 100 paratroopers from the American, British, German, Norwegian and Belgian air forces, armies and marines participated in "airborne jump operations to build partnerships and capabilities needed to meet future challenges" in Germany, parachuting from a C-17 from the HAW and C-130J Hercules from the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein Air Base. Though it wasn't "the first time NATO countries have participated in jump week,
it was the first time the recently stood up HAW participated." [15]
Last month the scope of the operation became evident when a a C-17 left the Papa Air Base for a three-day, 7,000-mile mission "covering the countries of Hungary, Poland, Afghanistan and Lithuania as they move[d] more than 75,000 tons of cargo" [16] to the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
On January 4 the U.S. Defense Department's news service announced that the C-17 Globemaster III had celebrated its two millionth flight hour.
"As a testament to the C-17 mission tempo, the aircraft passed its two millionth flight hour just four years after passing its first million-hour mark, and the first million hours took 16 years to reach.
"Although Air Mobility Command officials estimate the international C-17 fleet passed the milestone on Dec. 14, the achievement was commemorated on a Dec. 10 airdrop mission out of Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan." The latter was identified by the source as the busiest military airport in the world, one which accommodates "approximately 100 missions, 1,500 passengers and 800 short tons of cargo daily." [17]
Last April the White House secured an agreement with the government of Kazakhstan to permit U.S. troops to fly over the North Pole and across the Central Asian nation bordering China and Russia to Afghanistan.
On January 3 USS Bainbridge, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer, left Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia to deploy with Standing NATO Maritime Group 2: "The ship and its crew will conduct joint operations with various countries of NATO and also conduct maritime interdiction operations near the coast of Somalia." [18] That is, it will operate in the Gulf of Aden and the broader Arabian Sea where the U.S. and NATO have created a war zone that stretches from the Horn of Africa to the Indian subcontinent.
The Afghan war has indeed contributed in transforming NATO from a military bloc that had waged bombing campaigns in the Balkans to an international, integrated, expeditionary force the Pentagon and White House are employing to conduct military operations not short of war for a number of key geopolitical purposes.
1) Gareth Porter, How Afghanistan Became a War for NATO
Inter Press Service, January 3, 2011
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54020
2) Macedonian International News Agency, December 28, 2010
3) Iraq: NATO Assists In Building New Middle East Proxy Army
Stop NATO, August 13, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/iraq-nato-assists-in-building-new-middle-east-proxy-army
4) USS Abraham Lincoln Launches 1,000th Sortie In Support of OEF
Navy NewsStand
January 1, 2011
5) USA Today, January 2, 2011
6) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, December 9, 2010
7) Stars and Stripes, October 4, 2010
8) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
September 2, 2010
9) Belleville News Democrat, November 1, 2010
10) United States European Command, August 9, 2010
11) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, September 17, 2009
12) U.S. Air Force, December 16, 2009
13) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, October 16, 2009
14) United States European Command
United States Air Forces in Europe
April 2, 2010
15) United States Air Forces in Europe, June 17, 2010
16) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, December 17, 2010
17) American Forces Press Service, January 4, 2011
18) WAVY, January 3, 2011
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