Photo By Sgt. Danielle Rodrigues | The soldiers of Detachment 1 pose with their Sherpa at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in...... read more read more
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The California National Guard's last C-23 Sherpa cargo plane was recently retired as an Army cost-cutting measure. But hope remains that the cheap and versatile plane will return to service.
The C-23 Sherpa doesn’t have the sleek, powerful look you might expect in a military aircraft; the boxy, squat cargo plane looks like a throwback to the early days of flight. With its twin-propeller, twin-tail design, the Sherpa may appear ungainly, but it has filled an important niche in Army aviation.
“It’s a multi-role airplane that’s versatile and cheap to operate and maintain,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Doug Jones, commander of the California National Guard’s Fresno-based Detachment 1, Company I, 185th Theater Aviation Brigade.
Detachment 1 is the CNG’s Sherpa unit, part of the 1106th Theater Aviation Sustainment Maintenance Group. Its Sherpa was one of the last still flying for the National Guard. Forty-three Sherpas nationwide were flying for the Army Guard last year; however, they have since been placed in indefinite storage.
Sherpas originally were used by the U.S. Air Force in Europe. They were turned over to the Guard in 1990. In California, the plane has supported wildfire operations, transported VIPs, enabled parachute jump training and shuttled personnel, cargo and aircraft parts up and down the state.
“One of the main things we used them for was flying parts for the [TASMG],” California Guard State Aviation Officer Col. Lou Carmona said. “Then they started flying them in theater in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they really filled a niche, allowing us to fly parts cheaply from airport to airport.”
The plane’s versatility and ability to take on missions on a dime made it a favorite of San Diego-based Navy SEAL Team 7. Earlier this year, SEAL Team 7 Operations Master Chief Petty Officer Hugh Higgs wrote a letter of appreciation to Jones, thanking Detachment 1 for flying 81 jumpers on seven high-altitude, high-opening night jumps.
“The ability for the Sherpa squadron to understand, incorporate and immediately action on the standard operating procedures of the SEAL platoon during tactical operations is a critical skill set essential to mission success,” Higgs wrote.
Though Detachment 1 was assigned two Sherpas in the early 1990s, up until September it had one Sherpa, four pilots and five flight engineers. The detachment’s Sherpas were both deployed to Iraq in 2003-4, but due to operational needs, only one returned to Fresno while the other remained in theater. The detachment deployed back to Iraq in 2006-7 and again in 2008-9, then deployed to Egypt for seven months in 2011-12.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the Sherpa played an important role, shuttling everything from aircraft parts to blood, ammunition and personnel. The Sherpa carries up to 23 passengers or 7,000 pounds of cargo. It flies at about 218 miles per hour and has a range of about 770 miles.
Although it is far smaller than the Air Force’s C-130 cargo planes and has less capacity than the Army’s CH-47 Chinook helicopter, the Sherpa is less expensive to fly and maintain than either aircraft.
“It burns far less fuel than a Chinook and it’s a very simple aircraft with fewer moving parts,” Jones said.
The hourly cost to operate a Sherpa is nearly 75 percent lower than to operate a Chinook, according to the Defense Department Reimbursable Rates Chart. As compared with a C-130, the cost is about 50 to 70 percent less, depending on the C-130 model.
In addition to Army troops, Air Force and Air Guard personnel were frequent fliers on the Sherpa because of Detachment 1’s ability to get them to their destination quickly and on a short timeline, Jones said.
“We’re not as tied up by regulations as the Air Force,” he said. “We’re more flexible in the way that we operate.”
Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crews also used the Sherpa to get to their aircraft during wildfire season.
“We used the C-23 on a consistent, weekly basis this fire season to rotate helicopter crews,” said Maj. Ben Garcia, operations officer for the Mather Army Aviation Support Facility. “It allowed us to get crews here in a timely manner without using helicopter blade time. That way we are able to save [flight] hours for missions and save time on scheduled maintenance.”
While those familiar with the Sherpa often sing its praises, the future of the aircraft is uncertain. A retirement ceremony was held for California’s last Sherpa on Sept. 27 at Mather AASF near Sacramento. Detachment 1 then flew the aircraft to Fort Sill, Okla., where it was placed in storage, possibly indefinitely due to the Army’s decision to phase out the Sherpa program as a cost-cutting measure.
“It’s older and not as sexy, so it’s kind of gone by the wayside,” California National Guard Federal Policy and Liaison Chief Andreas Mueller said of the Sherpa.
This year’s National Defense Authorization Act has funding for the Guard’s Sherpa program and it disallows its retirement, Mueller said. But the Army has other ideas.
“The problem is the Army is planning to put them in storage and place them in indefinite repair,” he said. “The Army wants to get out of the fixed-wing aircraft business, but we should not be retiring them. We use them, they’re cheap, there’s no reason we should let go of them.”
Jones said he is hopeful the Defense Authorization Act will be signed before the year is out and the Detachment’s Sherpa will be back in business, at least for another year.
“It’s a sad day if we’re not able to save that aircraft,” Carmona said. “It’s a great competency we’ll longer have.”
| Date Taken: | 09.27.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2013 15:04 |
| Story ID: | 115746 |
| Location: | SACRAMENTO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,938 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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