The Quest for Relevant Air Power

182 │ GERMAN Air Force
border area. 195 The operation included the establishment of an
intra theatre air bridge which was run by GAF and German Army
aviation units. 196 Almost simultaneously, two GAF C-160 Transall
and three Army aviation CH-53 helicopters were deployed to
Bahrain and Iraq to support the UNSCOM in Iraq. 197
The year after, it was decided that GAF transport aircraft were
to participate in humanitarian missions both in Bosnia and Somalia.
198 In August 1992, two C-160 Transalls were dispatched to
Kenya and participated in an airlift effort to relieve Somalia’s
capital of Mogadishu. With the arrival of a German logistics battalion
in mid-1993 in Somalia, the GAF transferred its base from
Kenya to Djibouti. 199
Simultaneously, from 4 July 1992, two GAF Transalls participated
in the international air bridge to Sarajevo. 200 For the first
time since WWII, German transport aircraft were exposed to a
constant GBAD threat, giving this mission an entirely new quality.
Aircraft had to be fitted immediately with a self-protection suite
and additional armour. 201 Nevertheless, these measures could not
prevent a German Transall from being damaged by GBAD in February
1993. 202 Despite the fact that German aircraft were shot at
several more times, the GAF was, alongside the USAF, the RAF,
the FAF, and the Canadian Air Force, the only air force that constantly
contributed to the air bridge to Sarajevo. 203 Furthermore,
GAF Transalls air-dropped relief supplies in Eastern Bosnia together
with American C-130 Hercules and French C-160 Transalls
from 28 March 1993 to 19 August 1994. The missions had to
be flown at night and entailed a significant exposure to Bosnian
Serb GBAD. 204
GAF transport aircraft and helicopters were also involved in
various other humanitarian operations such as in Iran (1990),
Rwanda (1994), and Mozambique (2000), which had been seriously
devastated by floods. 205 From October 1999 to February
2000, two German Transalls, configured as medevac aircraft,
made it as far as Darwin in northern Australia when Germany
received a request from the UN to evacuate wounded from crisistorn
East Timor. 206 Medevac as such has become one of the
GAF’s specialities. 207
GAF transport aircraft proved indispensable not only for humanitarian
missions but also for the deployment and resupply of