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Aircraft ‘CSI’ teams assess damage, aid flight crews

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Renni Thornton
  • 451st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan --  Battle damage assessment is critical to the war fighter and at Kandahar Airfield, the members of the Joint Combat Assessment Team understand how critical their skills are to the war fighter.

"We assess battle damage done to any U.S. aircraft. It could be a helicopter, fighter jet, anything. Typically, aircraft are shot at while flying in various regions in the area of responsibility. We investigate small arms fire among other things. Part of what we do is determine what type of ammunition may have hit the aircraft, how it struck and when it occurred. This information can help units determine how future incidents can be avoided," said Capt. Mark Friesen, battle damage assessor, assigned to a joint task force at KAF.

Battle damage assessment is composed of physical damage assessment, functional damage assessment, and target system assessment.

Much of the information gathered is shared with the aircraft survivability community including the Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

This community, said Captain Friesen, is able to use the information to improve aircraft design and develop countermeasures.

Captain Friesen and the joint team he works with are viewed as CSIs or crime scene investigators. In fact, said Captain Friesen, they are often referred to as the 'combat scene investigation' team in many military aviation arenas.

"Say for example an aircraft has been hit by small arms fire while flying a rescue mission. Depending on what evidence is available, we can characterize with pretty good accuracy what types of threats we are facing in the AOR," said Captain Friesen.

That information can prove invaluable to intelligence agencies.

Surprisingly, Captain Friesen does not do this job for a living. Back at his home station, Wright-Patterson AFB, he is an acquisitions program manager.

He is deployed in a Joint Expeditionary Tasking slot.

While this may be a departure from his educational background as a mechanical engineer, the captain admits he finds this deployment challenging and exciting.

"We use forensics and computer software programs and a variety of tools to help determine how things occurred. This has been an eye-opening experience."

Captain Friesen also credits the training classes he was required to attend before being deployed to the unit here.

The unit has demonstrated a strong presence in the area of responsibility
since 2003.

"The JCAT was assembled in Iraq but now that things have decreased there, the team members are able to branch out in Afghanistan," he said.