Sardeh Band Airport ( ps, د سردې بند هوايي ډګر; ) is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located at the town of

Sardeh Band Sardeh Band ( ps, سردې بند) or Sardeband ( ps, سردېبند) is a town located on the eastern edge of Andar District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, near the border with Paktika Province. The town is located near the Sardeh Band Dam. The ...

, and about north of the Russian-built dam called

Sardeh Band Dam The Sardeh Band Dam ( ps, د سردې بند برېښناکوټ) is located near Sardeh Band town, in the eastern part of Andar District of Ghazni Province of Afghanistan. It was constructed in 1967 (1346 in the Islamic calendar) by the Soviet Un ...

(built in 1967) on the eastern edge of

Andar District Andar ( ps, اندړ ولسوالۍ) is one of the eastern districts of Ghazni Province in Afghanistan. The population has been estimated at 88,300, all Pashtun. The district center is Miray while the other main town is Andar. The district is n ...

Ghazni Province Ghazni (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. The ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The airfield lies in a valley northwest of lake Mota Khan, near the border with

Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharana ...

. Though the airstrip is still evident against the surrounding desert, it has not been maintained since Russian military Forces withdrew from Afghanistan and there are no structures to support it. During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the airstrip was used in a limited capacity by U.S. Special Operations Forces.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 02/20 with a

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

surface measuring .

Incidents

On 12 June 2002 a

Lockheed MC-130 The Lockheed MC-130 is the basic designation for a family of special mission aircraft operated by the United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), a wing of the Air Education and Training Command, and an AFSOC-gained wing of the ...

H Hercules was participating in a night exfiltration mission to remove U.S. Army Special Forces troops from the area when it tried to take off from the airstrip. The plane impacted the ground and

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock Single (music), single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry (band), Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stat ...

in a barren area, from the airstrip.http://usaf.aib.law.af.mil/MC-130H_Afghanistan_12Jun02.pdf

References

External links

*
Airport record for Sardeh Band Airport
at Landings.com. Retrieved 2013-8-1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sardeh Band Airport Airports in Afghanistan Ghazni Province Afghanistan–Soviet Union relations Soviet foreign aid Military installations of the Soviet Union in other countries

Facilities

Incidents

See also

References

External links