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To: Pukin Dog
What we learned in Iraq, is that the Apache is quite the sitting duck

Not quite. Only if employed and operated improperly against the threat(as it was with the 11th Avn Rgt deep attack mission that resulted in a bunch of shot up Apaches and a captured crew). Let's not condemn the airframe outright just because some of the leadership failed to plan and execute properly.

The AH-64 units of the 3rd ID and 101st aquitted themselves quite well during OIF because they switched up their TTPs on their first and subsequent missions to address the threat as it was, not as some doctrinal template said it should be.

Agree on the Comanche comment. When you trade weight for performance you degrade survivability and structural integrity. Also, stealth with a rotary wing aircraft is pretty much a falacy at low airspeeds/hover with corresponding high power settings at close ranges to the threat. Besides, all the stealth technology in the world applied to a helicopter can't hide the effects of a rotor system with something as readily accessable as a doppler radar.

138 posted on 02/23/2004 6:03:05 PM PST by TADSLOS (Right Wing Infidel since 1954)
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To: TADSLOS
Not quite. Only if employed and operated improperly against the threat(as it was with the 11th Avn Rgt deep attack mission that resulted in a bunch of shot up Apaches and a captured crew). Let's not condemn the airframe outright just because some of the leadership failed to plan and execute properly.

Point taken.

However, the fog of war is something that needs to be better factored into our designs. I love the Apache, and in the right mission it's effectiveness cannot be denied. The human will always be the weak link when it comes to tactics, so bump up the ponies and pack on the armor until we get our tactical act together.

140 posted on 02/23/2004 6:07:44 PM PST by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: TADSLOS; Pukin Dog
May I ask your opinions on the Apache? Was not such copters designed to ambush Russian tank columns in Germany from tree covers and they were not meant to function as offensive insertion weapons? That their mission was transformed from defensivce to offensive after the end of the cold war? The Russian never used copters for offensive capabilities in Afghanistan - only to transport troops with protection.
158 posted on 02/23/2004 9:04:55 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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