The US Air Force private jet that crashed in Afghanistan has been called 'as essential to mission success as bullets'

The Bombardier E-11A is the military version of the Bombardier Global Express family.

The Global Express is one of the largest wide cabin VIP aircraft produced by Bombardier of Canada's private jet division.

The Canadian aircraft manufacturer's Global Express product line is a director competitor to Gulfstream, whose planes are also used by the Air Force.

For the Air Force, however, it has a much different mission.

The aircraft is used to facilitate communications, acting as a central hub for communications between forces both on the ground and in the air.

Source: US Air Force

A flying repeater, the aircraft allows forces to communicate with each other even when separated via mountains or obstacles or when using different communications systems.

Source: Air Force Mag

The Air Force had only four of the aircraft in its fleet.

Source: Military Times

The aircraft is rare and only operates in Afghanistan, so new pilots usually have their first time at the controls when flying over combat areas.

Source: Air Force Mag

Its sole base of operations is in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the US military has been embroiled in war since 2001.

Source: US Air Force

The name for the program is Battlefield Operational Communication Node, or BACN for short, like the breakfast food.

Source: US Air Force

Though the range of the Air Force's variant is unknown, the civilian version of the aircraft has a range upwards of 6,000 nautical miles, according to Bombardier, making it ideal for long endurance flights over battlefields.

Source: Bombardier

Though not as fast as other Air Force planes, Bombardier reports the civilian version of the Global Express XRS aircraft have a maximum speed of around Mach .88, greater than 600 miles per hour.

Source: Bombardier

Its creation for born out of necessity when the military wanted to shore up communications following the rescue of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, a mission which was later turned into the movie "Lone Survivor."

Source: US Air Force

Now, the Air Force refers to the aircraft as "as essential to mission success as bullets."

Source: US Air Force

The aircraft has a strong safety record, with no recorded fatalities in the aircraft family's 27-year history before the recent incident.

Source: Aviation Safety Network

This would be the first time that a Global Express aircraft crashed without outside interference.

Source: Aviation Safety Network

Following the crash, news sources reported that members of the US Navy's SEAL Team Six recovered two bodies and the aircraft's flight recorder, which can better tell what brought the aircraft down.