NAVAIR

Isolated by miles of desert, the Marines stationed at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, have enjoyed years of security.

But on a moonless night in September, the peaceful atmosphere was shattered by 15 insurgents when they infiltrated the perimeter and attacked aircraft parked on the British military base’s airfield. One member of the Naval Air Systems Command Reserve Program recalled that fateful night.

“Within minutes, the posture of the base changed from being a safe and secure workplace to a highly vulnerable one,” said Lt. Cmdr. Pete Olsen, team leader for the Joint Combat Assessment Team (JCAT), a detachment of NAVAIR’s Reserve Program (NRP). “Within an hour, we were directly witnessing spectacular fires on the airfield due to burning aircraft, fuel bladders and infrastructure … and not only do you see these glowing fires, but it’s a very dark night and it’s amplified.”

As a key member of the NRP’s JCAT attached to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Olsen ultimately assessed the 14 aircraft, including eight Marine Corps AV-8Bs, destroyed or severely damaged in the Sept. 14 attack – the most significant instance of Marine aircraft loss since the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, according to the JCAT’s 2012 annual report.

With the information gathered through photographs of the damage, intelligence reports and interviews with squadron members, the JCAT team prepared reports that provided a comprehensive, quantitative picture of the aircraft systems’ resilience from the attack.

“We’re treating the war like a live-fire test, but after-the-fact,” Olsen said. “Anytime an aircraft suffers battle damage due to enemy action, we document it and share the facts with key stakeholders. They can then use this information to drive survivability improvements and learning.”

Olsen and his team compiled a review of the events of the attack and shared their findings with the 3^rd Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general and other key leaders.

JCAT findings are used extensively when developing new aircraft systems or improving existing platforms. One key leader is Bill Dooley. Dooley heads NAVAIR’s Combat Survivability Division, which is responsible for improving the ability of Navy and Marine Corps aircraft to avoid lethal engagements and keep operating when hits occur.

“The info JCAT sends back to us is invaluable to what we do here at NAVAIR,” Dooley said. “The real-world data the NRP reservists gather provides much needed context and relevance to our engineering assessments. It’s vital information and we can’t thank them enough.”

ABOUT THE NAVAIR RESERVE PROGRAM

The Joint Combat Assessment Team is a unit within the NRP, and provides a capability to NAVAIR not performed by active duty personnel. Overall, the NRP has nearly 250 officer and enlisted members supporting the command, its associated warfare centers and program executive officers. NRP members regularly deploy forward with operational units, providing tens of thousands of man-days of support each year.

NAVAIR press release