CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 3 PAUL MORABITO
SP, B Company, 1-108th Aviation
Kansas Army National Guard
Salina, Kan.
Author’s note: The following is a real-world example of how risk management was implemented in Kuwait in support of Operation New Dawn 2011-2012. I believe risk management saved my life and the lives of about 81 fellow Soldiers serving our nation. In this article, I’m leaving out some specifics, decisions and courses of action involved in our training mission.
This mission was for six UH-60s to insert troops into the open, isolated desert of Kuwait under zero percent illumination, zero contrast (or ground references), also known as “Red Illum.” It was one of the most challenging landings any one of us has ever accomplished to date.
As the assigned flight lead, one of my first pre-mission checks was to determine the level of illumination for the 0000 local time on target (H-hour). Not only was the weather forecast to be dust and haze, but it was to be zero illumination as well. Having been in country for about six months, we conducted several multi-ship night vision goggle dust landings, but never with less than 30 percent illumination. Given that this was not a mission we would conduct in a combat theater without some sort of artificial illumination, the landing phase was identified as the greatest hazard.
A secondary issue we identified was that the ground force commander requested simultaneous two-ship infiltrations of three separate landing zones. Now we had to distribute the crew experience even further for there to be three separate flight leads from release point inbound.
Our first solution was to voice our concerns and ask if the mission could be conducted at sunrise, which would significantly reduce the risk for the mission. To meet the ground force commander’s intent, it was decided that the mission had to be conducted at the original H-hour.
The initial risk management worksheet involving all of the hazards assessed suggested the mission was extremely high, meaning it was likely a catastrophic event would occur. So now we had to adopt the think-outside-of-the-box mentality.
The first mitigation item thought of (since this was not a combat mission) was to send at least myself and another senior instructor pilot to conduct a day LZ reconnoiter and physically land in all LZs. The second was to remove the cockpit doors, which significantly increases the visibility of a dust landing during the most critical 10 feet. The third was the most creative yet, thought of by one of our most seasoned IPs: to mark the LZs with vehicles in the forward and aft corners with lights on and place infrared strobes on the edge to add situational awareness and contrast to the empty desert floor.
To assist in our commander accepting the risk, we decided to attempt a dry run of this newly adopted tactic at about the same time (and illumination) with our highest flight hour IPs. Although the dry run was still extremely challenging to land safely, all of the risk management measures (and out-of-the-box thinking) did lower the risk of Red Illum landings.
With the mitigation drilled, in place and rehearsed, the mission was now a high risk and deemed a “go.” On mission day, the vehicles were to leave the camp and drive through the open desert to stage in accordance with our risk management mitigation plan. The two vehicles that were supposed to mark my LZ got stuck (due to a sand dune blocking the passage) and were unable to posture on my LZ. So one of the new techniques to reduce the risk was not going to be in place for my own LZ!
Proving that risk management is an ongoing process, we could not give up that easily. As a last-minute audible, we brought IR chemical lights and water bottles that we decided we would drop on the LZ if we were unable to make the ground. The commander approved us to launch, and both of my ships were able to land safely on the first attempt due to the other mitigating factors (crew mix, doors off, etc.). The other four ships that had their LZs marked with vehicles said that it allowed for a noteworthy improvement in SA with the distance to the ground.
The lessons learned were that even though a mission risk is readily accepted in combat, an imminent danger zone, which is by default an operational training environment, can be far more dangerous than a battle. Ground force commanders expect to train with aviation in identical scenarios as in combat. Spending additional time thinking through the most dangerous risks assessed and using risk management thoroughly will allow for total mission success with zero casualties or incidents.
There is no quantifiable way to measure how much implementing risk management reduced the risk for my mission, but it did enable us to stay safe in an austere environment. Engaging all of the aircrew members allowed for the most pertinent of mitigation to be implemented. Using risk management every day, in every mission, with every crewmember, will greatly decrease your risk of an accident, incident or, at the very least, a significant emotional event.