Operation Marfil. The Spanish C130 on the job in Dakar to support the deployment of Misma

(BRUSSELS2) The C-130 plane with the first 30 soldiers from the Spanish Air Force arrived at 16:10 p.m. on Saturday (January 26) at Dakar airport (Senegal). Twenty soldiers should follow in the middle of next week.

The C-130 Hercules (T-10 in Spanish denomination), from Ala 31, left at 7:15 a.m. from its base in Zaragoza. After a stopover to integrate additional personnel and equipment at Moron de la Frontera Air Base, Sevilla, he avoided Moroccan territory, flying over the sea through the Canary Islands, along the coast of Mauritania, then the Senegal.

Airlift to Bamako, but no inter-theater connection

On the spot, in Dakar, the Spanish plane will be in charge of maintaining an air bridge towards Bamako, capital of Mali, for the transport of troops and material of Misma. This aircraft" will not make inter-theatre flights, between airports on Malian territory “says the Spanish Ministry of Defense. Its mission is " to facilitate the transport of troops and equipment of the Mali International Support Mission under international leadership” (AFISMA / AFISMA).

Compound detachment

Among the 30 soldiers who make up the Spanish detachment, the commander-in-chief of the mission, the two complete crews of Hercules (composed of a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator, a flight engineer, including including two supervisors of each load), belonging to Ala 31. A leader and two operational deployment teams from the Air Force Deployment Support Squadron (EADA) provide security responsibility for the detachment Spanish. An air deployment support medical unit (UMAAD) completes the system for setting up a "role 1" hospital as well as a team from the mobile air control group (GRUMOCA), which will establish secure communications with the 'Spain.