Germany Nears First Tiger Operational Deployment

 After much delay, Germany’s Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter will now deploy to Afghanistan for its first operational mission in early December.

Four ASGARD-F Tigers will be transported to Mazar-e-Sharif in Regional Command North of ISAF with two being made available for operations and the other two held in reserve. Full operational capability should be reached in February 2013.

The German Tiger programme had been confronted with intense political pressure to speed up the deployment to Afghanistan in order to overcome a gap in helicopter combat support there.

An accelerated change process for technical modifications was deemed to be feasible and Eurocopter was contracted to modify eight Tiger attack helicopters to ASGARD-F (Afghanistan Stabilization German Army Rapid Deployment- Full) configuration.

In August the first four were delivered to the 36th Attack Helicopter Regiment (KHR36), which is the designated lead unit for the deployment. A second batch is expected to be delivered to Fritzlar, home of the sole German army aviation Tiger regiment, from December.

KHR36 personnel recently finished an intensive training schedule for armed reconnaissance, escort, close combat attack and rotary wing close air support tasks, which started in April 2011.

A limited number of ASGARD-T (T for training) airframes, which are fitted with most of the provisions needed for actual deployment, were available for these ISAF mission-related training activities.

Two ASGARD-T Tigers and three NH90s were sent to the White Sands missile range in the US this summer for exercise FALCOR (Final Assessment of Limitations and Combat Operational Requirements) 2012. During the exercise the helicopters operated out of the German air force Tornado Flying Training Center facilities at Holloman AFB in New Mexico while also using nearby Kirtland AFB.

The primary goal of FALCOR was to assess the suitability of operating with both helicopter types in ‘hot, high and dusty’ conditions in a desert environment. At the same time FALCOR was a major stepping stone exercise for Tiger and NH90 crews progressing towards ISAF deployment.

Four NH90s are also being readied for deployment to Afghanistan in April 2013 in their current enhanced initial operational capability forward air medevac configuration.

The Tiger attack helicopters bound for Afghanistan are equipped with additional ballistic protection, blade protection kits, sand filters and improvements to their defensive aids suite and communications equipment. ASGARD-F air-to-ground armament consists of FN Herstal HMP400 12.7mm gun pods, unguided rocket pods (19 x 70mm) and MBDA HOT guided missiles.