{"id":37890,"date":"2014-01-16T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T11:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=ea415c83bbaf0751c7b8dd8881eb6ba0"},"modified":"2014-01-16T11:31:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T11:31:00","slug":"news-story-air-chief-praises-progress-during-first-afghanistan-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=37890","title":{"rendered":"News story: Air chief praises progress during first Afghanistan visit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS<\/abbr>), the head of the Royal Air Force, praised the armed forces during his visit which included meeting the Tornado detachment at 904 Expeditionary Air Wing<\/a> in Kandahar, currently manned by the \u2018Dambusters\u2019, No 617 Squadron<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also visited Task Force Helmand at Camp Bastion, the unit responsible for the UK\u2019s combat operations across Helmand province, as well as 903 Expeditionary Air Wing<\/a>, which runs the camp\u2019s busy airfield. <\/p>\n

During his visit he spoke about the UK\u2019s mission in 2014: <\/p>\n

\n

This year will be another year of hard work, another year of commitment, another year of being in harm\u2019s way; we will need to maintain our focus and effort right through to the end of combat operations.<\/p>\n

I continue to be hugely impressed by the contribution being made by all elements of the Royal Air Force to Op Herrick, from the RAF Regiment<\/a> providing vital force protection<\/a> on the ground in Helmand to the Reaper<\/a> and C-130<\/a> crews providing support to the ANSF<\/abbr> (Afghan National Security Forces) and ISAF<\/abbr><\/a> (International Security Assistance Force) across the whole of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CAS<\/abbr> was able to see the Royal Air Force\u2019s new Voyager<\/a> transport aircraft, which has now started flying routinely into Afghanistan to support the airbridge to and from the UK. <\/p>\n

\n
\"Air<\/div>
Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford, meeting soldiers and airmen at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan [Picture: Corporal Ross Fernie RLC, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Voyager is a state-of-the-art passenger aircraft and air-to-air refueller with the reliability and capacity of a modern airliner.<\/p>\n

During his visit to the Tornado<\/a> detachment at 904 Expeditionary Air Wing in Kandahar, CAS<\/abbr> met Royal Air Force personnel of all ranks.<\/p>\n

He said: <\/p>\n

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The Tornado is the mainstay of the Royal Air Force\u2019s air combat force and has been a fundamental part of air operations across Afghanistan. It has provided close air support to both ANSF<\/abbr> and ISAF<\/abbr> alike since its first deployment to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CAS<\/abbr> also visited the Joint Aviation Group at Bastion, where pilots from all 3 services fly the UK\u2019s helicopters on operations in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

He said: <\/p>\n

\n

The Royal Navy\u2019s Commando Helicopter Force<\/a>, the Apaches<\/a> and Lynx<\/a> of the Army Air Corps<\/a>, and of course the Royal Air Force\u2019s Chinook<\/a> and Merlin<\/a> forces have committed themselves fully over many years in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The Rotary Wing Force and the medical emergency response teams have day-in day-out provided life-saving care which has directly saved many hundreds of Afghan and ISAF<\/abbr> lives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford spent 2 days meeting personnel at Camp Bastion and Kandahar Airfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}