KURMITOLA AIR BASE, Bangladesh - One Kentucky Air National Guard Airman shared his knowledge of heavy equipment airdrop procedures with an audience of more than 20 Bangladesh air force airmen at Kurmitola Air Base, Bangladesh April 22, 2012.
Tech. Sgt. Joshua Shelby, a loadmaster with the 123rd Airlift Wing, Kentucky Air National Guard, is one of more than 65 U.S. Air Force Airmen participating in Cope South 2012, a bilateral tactical airlift exercise conducted with the Bangladesh and U.S. Air Forces.
This year, Cope South participants are exchanging airlift, air-land, and airdrop delivery techniques, and developing and expanding combined airlift capabilities with the Bangladesh air force.
Shelby shared the conditions to consider when conducting an air drop, such as the effects of air speed, altitude and wind speeds on parachutes when deployed from a C-130 Hercules.
"The Bangladesh air force may be able to integrate some of our procedures into theirs," Shelby said. "This exchange allows us to share our capabilities, discuss different methods and demonstrate how to do everything safely."
Safety and terrain maneuvering are paramount issues for the Bangladesh air force.
"In our country, we practice more with paratroopers," said Bangladeshi Maj. Arman Chokldhuvy, a squadron commander. "We want to experience how the U.S. Air Force flies in our terrain and use it to help guide us to be safer in low-level flying during airdrops and deliveries."
In this exchange of learning, the major said he hopes his team learns different airdrop procedures and identifies possible improvements to their procedures.
"We're expecting to learn different flying techniques and aspects of flight to assist us with delivering heavy loads for disaster management missions," Chokldhuvy said.
The exchanges will enhance Bangladesh and U.S. Air Forces ability to respond to regional disasters.
Throughout the six-day exercise, participants are scheduled to conduct cooperative flight operations, including aircraft generation and recovery, low-level navigation, tactical airdrop and air-land missions, as well as conduct subject-matter expert exchanges in the operations, maintenance and rigging disciplines.