[mbynack]

The problem with helicopter shootdowns is more easily and cheaply addressed through changes in tactics. No matter what you do to a helicopter it's going to have to fly slow, and low where the air is dense. The higher they fly, the less maneuverable they are. That makes them more susceptible to ground fire.

[Tallguy]

Contrast this impressive improvement in platform survivability with what's happened in Marine Corps rotor craft over the same time frame. In Vietnam, the Marines lost a helicopter once every 6,000 sorties. In Iraq, their loss rate jumped to one every 1,500 sorties. That is a four-fold increase in rotor-craft losses compared to a 26-fold decrease in tactical aircraft losses.

I think the proliferation of RPG's with fragmentation warheads being volley-fired from urban cover has a lot to do with it.

I was also reading an article by a helicopter test pilot who used to fly CH-46's in Nam. He said that they all used a manueuver to snap decelerate the machine quickly while reversing direction to throw off the aim of a machine gunner near a jungle LZ. He said that it's so tricky that it is prohibited during peacetime, and lamented the fact that helicopters, crew & passengers are being lost because of it.

[wally_bert]