A U.S. Army CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter flew over Baghdad on Wednesday. Another Sea Knight helicopter went down in Iraq the same day. (Marko Drobnjakovic/AP)
Posted on 02/08/2007 9:12:52 AM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD: Two new helicopter crashes near Baghdad are the latest in a spate of downings that strongly suggest insurgents have adapted their tactics to make American helicopters more vulnerable and are now putting more effort toward shooting down U.S. aircraft, American officials say.
Six American helicopters have crashed or been shot down in the past 19 days — including a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight transport on Wednesday, killing seven people — apparently the largest number of helicopters lost in such a short period since the invasion of Iraq.
The recent rash of crashes indicates insurgents have become smarter about anticipating American flight patterns and finding ways to use old weapons to down helicopters. Those aircraft, many of which were equipped with sophisticated antimissile technology, still can be vulnerable to more conventional weapons fired from the ground.
Details about the downed Sea Knight, which crashed into an open
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
A U.S. Army CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter flew over Baghdad on Wednesday. Another Sea Knight helicopter went down in Iraq the same day. (Marko Drobnjakovic/AP)
What would a real superpower do?
The last reported "crashed" helicopter didn't crash, but had a hard landing, with no one injured. The media is inflating the numbers and incidents.
Choppers are inherently vulnerable to ground fire. What's new?
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Always been that way. Wonder why they keep flying them into zones that have not been swept clean of bad boys ?? Until we really start fighting this war, on a war-footing scale, will we have results. The atrition will continue until then.
7 of our military troops have fallen.
What's new? I'd like to know this too. It seems to be only recently that the insurgents have had so much success shooting down our copters. What's changed? Do they have better weapons now?
of course they also eventually had stinger missles from us too.
You do not even have to hit the fuselage or engines. A few rounds through the main and/or tail rotor blades can have catastropic consequences.
Wouldn't doubt if we didn't train someone to shoot better. Any good marksman, with a 30cal are larger rife can bring down a copter every now and then. It's also a matter of knowing where to shoot.
Feb 8, 2007 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A helicopter operated by a private security firm came down in Iraq last week, U.S. officials said on Thursday, an incident that marks the sixth downing of a helicopter in three weeks.
Reports of the January 31 incident, in which no one was killed, come a day after seven crew members and passengers aboard a U.S. Marine helicopter were killed when it crashed near Baghdad, possibly after being hit by ground fire.
The U.S. military, concerned that militants have changed tactics or are using more sophisticated weapons, has said it is adjusting its tactics.
I'm not denying there has been a new and tragic rise in downed copters, but I'm not only seeing a new pattern by insurgents, but also by their media allies.
Reporting was contributed by David Cloud in Washington, Ali Adeeb and Qais Mizher in Baghdad and an Iraqi employee of the New York Times.
FYI
Regarding title: so are the rest of us. Something is amiss.
There is, likely, Iranian tactical support and training that is helping them.
If Bush leaks "classified" info to the press that Iran is sending Streylas to Iraq, then MSM trumpeting about troop killing helo crashes lays the groundwork for escalation with Iran.
Kinda nice to have the Liberal press working for us for a change, eh?
Maybe they are not such old weapons!
We lost like how many choppers in Vietnam? Four thousand plus comes to mind ... so in ten years, what's the daily count?
Fly higher and slower...
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