By U.S. Air Force Capt. Catie Hague
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan " Bagram is not only the busiest airfield in the U.S Central Command area of operations, it also surpasses flight operations at air bases across Europe that host U.S. operations and most outside the continental United States.
Bagram supported 125,000 flight operations last year in air traffic, take-offs and landings, and the air flow is already 10 percent higher than the rate at this time last year.
Three pieces make up flight operations: air traffic control, airfield management and aircraft maintenance, explained U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Brady Cheek, deputy commander of the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group.
The Airmen who work in the command post, the transient alert function and the air traffic operations center are the operational arm. "They are the key players on the ramp," Cheek said. "They manage the flow of aircraft and crews in and out of (Bagram), upload and download cargo and passengers, and park airplanes, all while controlling not only Air Force assets, but Army, civilian and Coalition assets as well.
Of the 100-plus people working flight operations at Bagram, about 60 are civilian -- part of the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program.
AFCAP was the first Coalition contract to stand up in Afghanistan, said Glenn Allison, Bagram's AFCAP site manager. The civilian contractors serve one-year tours, each one replacing three Airmen who would be on four-month deployments.
"AFCAP is the continuity piece," Cheek said. "Although the ops group commander oversees the contract and provides a military liaison, the civilians are responsible for maintaining control over the day-to-day air traffic and providing any maintenance required to keep the air traffic systems up and running."
Civilians working in the tower control air traffic out to 10 miles away and up to 7,400 feet high, said Les Ellis, AFCAP air traffic manager. The radar approach center covers out to 50 miles and up to 25,000 feet.
"With this radius of responsibility, AFCAP winds up controlling aircraft in and out of Kabul as well as Bagram," Ellis said.
AFCAP contractors manage the airfield environment -- runways, taxiways, lighting, radar, communications equipment, and more. "There's millions of dollars worth of assets here dedicated to flight operations," Allison said.
"On any given day," Cheek said, "we've got about 35 aircraft landing and departing, 150 tons of cargo being pushed and an average of 300 aircraft operations. Flight ops is a busy job, and the mission continues to grow.
"Our success in maintaining Bagram's ops tempo comes from the willingness of our entire team to make sacrifices," he said, 'to put the OEF mission first."