New Aviation Brigade to improve safety at Ali Air Base
Nov 4, 2009
By Alicia Embrey (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region)
Tallil, Iraq- Construction is progressing well on the $61 million Combat Aviation Brigade Beddown project located on Ali Air Base. The base, also known as Contingency Operating Base Adder and Tallil Air Base is located about 310 kilometers southeast of Baghdad and 20 kilometers southwest of the city of Nasiriyah.
The project involves construction of a nine-story Air Traffic Control Tower and provide over 75 acres of contingency airfield parking for rotary and medium-load fixed wing aircraft along with supporting utilities, infrastructure and security necessary to make the facility complete and usable.
According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineer construction representative John Morgan, the former location of Army rotary-wing aircraft at Baghdad International Airport did not facilitate rapid response to missions in southern Iraq.
"The additional helo pavements at Ali will provide a quicker reaction time for missions in southern Iraq. If launched from Baghdad support could take up to two-hours per mission," explained Morgan.
The existing air traffic control tower was constructed 20 years ago to meet Iraq's military needs at that time. The tower controls the airspace up to 3000 feet over a five mile radius centered in the middle of the airfield. Within that airspace they are responsible for separating, sequencing and issuing safety alerts to all aircraft.
"In today's environment, the old tower's inadequate height makes it impossible to provide safe traffic control over the largest airfield in southern Iraq," Morgan said. "It's important that we provide our soldiers with the safest possible conditions to live and work in."
In addition to the pads and tower the base lacks sufficient transient parking to support the nearly 100% increase of personnel and cargo flowing through this critical location. "The additional, medium load, fixed wing parking area will alleviate some of this lack of space," Morgan added.
Construction on the project by Kulac, Inc., a prime subcontractor for KBR began October 2008 and is 88% complete.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
