Exercise ODYSSEY DAWN Puma transit to Cyprus

Flt Lt Cushen

Just over one year from the date that the mighty Puma HC2 received an extension of service, and a few months since 1563 Flt stood up in Brunei, it became the turn of 33 Sqn’s Cyprus Flt to stand up in Cyprus.

Of course, with such close proximity to the UK, 33 Sqn elected to selfferry their aircraft to the Eastern Mediterranean, which itself displays the remarkable versatility and rapid deployability of the Medium Lift aircraft.

Planning began in the late months of 2022, headed by Flt Lts Burgess and Wood on the aircrew side and Flt Lt Jayon Graham from the engineering side of the Sqn, to deploy three Pumas with the ambition of reaching Cyprus five days after leaving RAF Benson. Thanks to some very hard work by the Puma Force engineers over the preceding weekend, supported ably by the wider Force and station, all three aircraft departed RAF Benson on the second week of February.

Split into two waves, the first two aircraft left RAF Benson at 10am on Monday 6th February, aiming to make their first overnight stop in Dijon after a refuel at Lille. Transiting through the London heli-lanes for one last time, the crews crossed the channel at Dover only to find that the northern coast of France sat under low-lying cloud, precluding an arrival at Lille. Unperturbed, they elected to land at Le Touquet for a quick refuel before continuing down to Dijon. Arriving a couple of hours before dark, Flt Lt Graham and Sgt Bull had their team of engineers service the aircraft and prep them for the second day’s leg down to Nice, via Orange Air Force Base, which has seemingly become a regular stop for the Puma Force over the last few years.

With aircraft number 3 a day behind, and visions of a warm evening on the Mediterranean coast in their mind, the Pumas continued their journey south… only to be disappointed on arrival in Nice by 35kts winds and a single digit outside air temperature; yet more poor weather for the engineers to battle against whilst servicing the aircraft! Spirits were improved the following day when the in-flight rations were delivered, however; we don’t often get cheese, fig jam or macarons in the butty boxes… Day 3 saw the most challenging weather of the week, as the lead pair attempted to get to Brindisi in the heel of Italy. Stopping at Pisa on the northwest coast of Italy (having flown by the billionaires’ playground that is Monaco), our route took us through some mountainous terrain, made trickier to transit by the potential for low-cloud and snow. Despite the best efforts to navigate around this weather we admitted defeat and diverted into Rome for a quick refuel and replan before electing to progress south to Naples, and thus closer to our ultimate destination.

Departing from Naples, passing the infamous Mt Vesuvius, a band of cloud remained over the spine of Italy. Thankfully the weather gods were kind to us, and their bases enabled a crossing of Italy to reach Brindisi where, fuelled by strong Italian coffee, the crews and passengers donned their over-water survival aids and prepared to leave Italy for Greece. Coasting out across the crystal clear (but rather chilly!) Ionian Sea provided most of the crews their first experience of operating over water for a longer period, which also required them to sharpen their pencils to calculate their “Points of No Return” and “Critical Points” based on the wind at the time – essentially telling them at which point on the route would progressing to Greece be closer than turning around for Italy should any issues arise.

No such issues cropped up, and the first landing in Greece was made at Preveza, an Hellenic Air Force base.

Greeted by the base commander, Wg Cdr Fletcher was given a memorable whistle-stop tour of the airfield before the crews were plied with coffee and sent on their way. Next stop Athens.

Flying into any capital city often requires a reasonable amount of negotiating airspace and danger areas and, according to the maps, Athens is no different. However, a very helpful controller made the process incredibly simple, much to everyone’s delight at the end of a long flying day.

The final leg of the journey gave the most food-for-thought. After transiting the Cyclades, the final hop would be a straight line from Rhodes to Cyprus; a distance of over 220nm, all over water. A strong headwind would mean that we’d likely have to wait for more favourable weather. The pencils came out again and the decision was made that we’d be able to make it to Akrotiri, and had the option to take fuel at Paphos along the way if needed. Coasting out from Rhodes, the formation checked in with the Athens Information frequency at the same time as the third aircraft, who at the time were just entering the Athens area of responsibility from Italy.

After crossing a beautiful Mediterranean, land was finally sighted after about 1hour 15 minutes of flying over water and it became clear that we’d make Akrotiri with plenty of fuel left in hand. Arriving at (another) new home to the Puma Force, the aircraft were met by the engineering advance party and some aircrew who had moved out earlier that week, followed 24 hours later by aircraft 3.

The self-deployment of the Puma to a new overseas location proved its versatility and the skill of all functions to operate independently to deploy a unit of action over 2200nm in track miles in under a week. Special mention must be made of course to the engineers that provided the aircraft, but also maintained them in some uncomfortable circumstances, and also to Cpl Pybus who kept a watchful eye on the aircraft transit, assisting with the many aircrew requests prior and during the transit.