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| Iraq |
| AEDs are a new threat to helicopters in Iraq |
| 2006-01-18 |
| American helicopters in Iraq are facing a new threat from so-called aerial bombs, which are fired into the air from the ground and explode close to passing aircraft. The new home-made weapons, known to the Americans as "aerial improvised explosive devices" have been used on numerous occasions. "The enemy is adaptive. They makes changes in the way they fight, they respond to new flying tactics," Brig Edward Sinclair, a US army aviation commander, told Defense News, which first revealed the new threat. He refused to say whether they had brought aircraft down. The aerial devices are placed along known flight paths and are triggered when insurgents see a low-flying helicopter approaching. They are then fired to a height of about 50ft before a proximity fuse detonates the explosive, filling the air with thousands of metal shards. Based on old anti-aircraft or artillery shells, the bombs would have a devastating effect if detonated close to a thin-skinned helicopter. Any new threat to helicopters is deeply worrying for coalition forces. Rotary-wing aircraft are widely used in Iraq and although at least 25 American aircraft have crashed in the past three years, they are considered to be safer than road transport. Ambitious insurgents also know that helicopters are likely to carry more people than road vehicles and that a crash is likely to prove fatal. In the past fortnight US forces in Iraq have lost three helicopters. In the most recent incident an Apache attack helicopter crashed on Monday, killing two crew. The earlier crashes of a reconnaissance helicopter and a Black Hawk, in which a total of 14 servicemen died, are still officially unexplained. Brig Sinclair, who leads a team in the US working on helicopter anti-insurgency tactics, said the army was altering flight paths and seeking new technology to counter the threat. But another new insurgent technique is proving still harder to counter: guerrillas have begun targeting medical evacuation helicopters. The new ambush tactic exploits an already tested formula. Insurgents first attack an American patrol with a roadside bomb. When troops summon helicopters to evacuate the wounded, insurgents detonate further devices pre-positioned on likely helicopter landing sites. According to Defense News, the Americans say they have lost "more than one" aircraft to this new tactic. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #11 Mac users type? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-01-18 18:13 |
| #10 We Mac users just type option-2 to get a ™. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-01-18 11:50 |
| #9 N Guard: you can also type in "& trade ;" with spaces removed. ™ Here's a site with some of the more common characters. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-01-18 11:38 |
| #8 If a proximity fuse is used to trigger the device, it should be easy to detect and either trigger remotely or set a counter ambush. If manually triggered, they are probably inaccurate (speed, depth perception and reaction time) and emplaced near settlements (for the triggerman's concealment) and pose a bigger shrapnel threat for the neighbors. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-01-18 10:03 |
| #7 PS I always use the "Character Map" tool in my Windoze functions for the ™ ® and ©'s... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-01-18 09:43 |
| #6 Again, this new round of car/suicide bombs plus these helo shootdowns began a week *after* Germany ransomed the hostage. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-01-18 09:38 |
| #5 Try the Alt key and 0153 on the number pad... |
| Posted by: .com 2006-01-18 09:33 |
| #4 Sounds like the Bouncing Betty(tm) from hell. I was wondering when the Hajjis were going to develop an anti-helo system. I thought they would use something like a MON 200 rigged to fire upwards, tho. (MON=soviet apers mine. MON 50=copy of M18 claymore. MON 100=Bigger version of claymore, 100m range. MON 200=Caymore Of Unusual Size(tm), 200m(!) range. BTW how do you get that superscript (TM) thingy to work? I am such a non-HTML compliant looser. |
| Posted by: N guard 2006-01-18 09:29 |
| #3 JosephM, you are a treasure. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-18 08:46 |
| #2 Its not a "new" tactic - the Commies tried it in KOREAN WAR 1, VIETNAM, and even in Central America. Iff anything is new, its the lack of numbers of US helos being used in comparison to the "heicopter war" aka Vietnam - we're still winning though. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-01-18 04:37 |
| #1 They are getting a LOT of outside help, training, and materiel... these are the same people who shit on their own living room rug. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-01-18 02:47 |