Posted on 02/08/2007 12:58:58 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON // First, U.S. military helicopter pilots in Iraq tried flying low and fast, hoping to elude heat-seeking missiles fired by insurgents.
The insurgents responded with heavy weapons such as machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, and the loss rate of American helicopters soared.
So the pilots went high -- and insurgents replied with lethal surface-to-air missiles.
A Marine Corps CH-46 helicopter was lost yesterday 20 miles northeast of Baghdad. It was the fifth helicopter that has gone down in Iraq in three weeks. Five Marines and two Navy hospital corpsmen were killed, and there was confusion over whether the twin-rotor Sea Knight troop carrier was shot down or crashed because of mechanical problems.
Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida said they shot it down, but a senior Pentagon official insisted that the 35-year-old aircraft caught fire and crashed because of mechanical problems.
There is no question that Iraq is becoming increasingly dangerous for the hundreds of U.S. military helicopters flying there.
With 4,000 to 5,000 increasingly sophisticated surface-to-air missiles in the hands of insurgents via the international arms markets, analysts say, American chopper pilots are caught in a narrowing flight envelope in which they can operate with relative safety. It takes years for the Pentagon to develop and field new defensive technology such as infrared jammers.
Each wrenching loss of a helicopter and crew brings an official statement saying that the military is studying new tactics. But this style of warfare requires that helicopters operate over mostly hostile territory, and pilots say there are precious few tactics that haven't been tried before.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
No doubt these weapons are Russian in origin
It seems to me that when the traitorous democrats, MSM and libs are allowed to embolden the enemy, one should expect no less.
All the missed opportunities to turn Iraq into a glass parking lot.
Unless our intel can keep pace, and overrun the murderers ... Our children will be fighting in our streets.
When did this happen?
In all the reports of weapons caches being seized, I don;t recall a single mention ever of a SAM.
Amazingly, no mention of suppliers in the whole article.
ummm... i hate to be picky... but last i hear, there were 4 downed american choppers. now, i don't want to be a buzz kill for the MSM during their celebration of enemy accomplishments... but exactly how does 4 kills equal a 'soaring' loss of choppers?
The MSM is intent to stoke the anti-war fire by whatever word-smithing they can.
If one helicopter was previously downed, and the second was downed later, the loss of the second would appear in the headlines as "100% increase in helicopter losses occurs".
They trumpet the death toll daily, and fail to acknowlege that in war, there will be casualties. Had the NY Times existed in this mode during the civil war, how would they have head-lined the 100's of thousands of deaths? Would they have had the Congress majority screaming for an end to bloodshed or for the Union to "cut and run"? Would we still be an English colony or speaking German if the "diplomacy" crowd had control during other wars?
This aiding and abetting of the enemy in wartime is sickening.....
that'd be unPC-gubmint and MSM ain't broadcasting tuff/hard info for public
Exactly. The last paragraph in the article sums it up well.
The helicopter "is a vulnerable platform that by definition flies low and slow, and with that comes casualties," said Daniel Goure, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a Washington defense think tank. "But after flying millions of miles in Iraq, the casualty rate for helicopters is extraordinarily low. I'd hazard a guess that it's safer flying a helicopter in Iraq than driving on the streets of Washington."
I hate to see us lose a single aircraft and crew but this is combat and the enemy has a vote until the enemy is destroyed.
Thanks to the Democrat Party, the main stream media,and the American voter and non voter it is going to get worse.
Expect more and more effective attacks as Iran suppkies them with better weaponery.
Remember when the CIA under Reagan funded the furnishing of stinger missiles to Afghan rebels that was a major factor in the Soviets loss is Afghanistan.
"Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida said they shot it down, but a senior Pentagon official insisted that the 35-year-old aircraft caught fire and crashed because of mechanical problems"
According to the title (Flying Iraq's deadly skies Insurgents' weapons catching up to U.S. military helicopters) the Baltimore Sun believes the terrorist insurgents word over a pentagon officials.
"First, U.S. military helicopter pilots in Iraq tried flying low and fast, hoping to elude heat-seeking missiles fired by insurgents."
A fast helicopter, now that's funny.
The nickname for the UH1N Huey, "Noisey, Slow moving, gray target."
Interesting, informative. Thanks for posting.
They are.
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