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Veil lifted on Afghan pilot training programme
The UK Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ have lifted the lid on a secret programme to train Afghan helicopter pilots in the UK.
Now in its final weeks of operation, Project Curium has trained 27 Afghan nationals to fly the Russian-built Mil Mi-17 transport helicopter, with training flights taking place from Boscombe Down into the Salisbury Plain Training Area.
The first of the students trained in the UK arrived back in Afghanistan in September last year with the final group due to complete their training in the coming weeks.
Involved in the project were engineers from QinetiQ and volunteer aircrew from Joint Helicopter Command's Special Duties Squadron (SDS), a JHC unit specially formed for the project. Three members of the unit are qualified to instruct on the Mi-17 following outsourced training in the Ukraine.
The most audacious part of the project was the purchase and modification of two Mi-17s from the Bulgarian Air Force on which the pupils would be trained. QinetiQ's role was to modify the aircraft and bring them up to UK Ministry of Defence standards, allowing them to be put on the UK military register as ZB697 and ZB698. The aircraft arrived in the UK in late 2008.
Jeff Gardner, Technical Manager of Project Curium, told Rotorhub.com that his team faced a huge challenge in the face of strict time constraints.
'This was a unique project to be involved in. We were working to very strict timescales,' Gardner said.
'You have to be pragmatic when faced with these kinds of challenges, but we were able to use a database of experience, we approached countries who used or had used the aircraft like Finland and Ukraine to solve the challenges.'
He said when the aircraft arrived in the UK there were some 900 issues with the aircraft that had to be solved before they could be used for training. The cockpit instruments had to be anglicised from the aircraft's native Cyrillic, although some instruments still bear elements of the Russian alphabet.
There was also the task of producing a new maintenance timetable with servicing every 25 hours. With a team of 25 engineers including several Lithuanian engineers from support company Helisota they were able solve the problems ready for the aircraft to begin operations in May 2009.
Wg Cdr Al Smith, officer commanding the SDS, said he was satisfied with how the project had proceeded, despite the cultural, language and technical hurdles that had to be overcome.
The training scheme was modelled on the helicopter training delivered by the Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS). The students, who are officers in the Afghan National Security Force, took part in English classes before beginning their flight training with 10 hours on the Firefly fixed-wing training aircraft before spending 65 hours in the Gazelle.
They then transferred to the Mi-17 on a 45-hour course that included basics in tactical flying including formation keeping, confined landings and some defensive manoeuvres. Their training will continue once they arrive in Afghanistan, preparing them for operating in the hot and high conditions there.
During the briefing two of the Afghan pilots, Karim and Saeed (preferring not to give their full names for security reasons) said they were looking forward to using their skills for real in Afghanistan.
Karim said: 'I came to England with little, and I'll leave able to speak English and knowing how to fly a helicopter. I want to serve Afghanistan and fly against the terrorists and bring peace, this is my aim.'
Once training has been completed the aircraft which are owned by the MoD will be gifted to the Afghan government and be transported to the country to join an expanding fleet of Mi-17s serving with Afghan national authorities.
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