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'Better than nothing': Outgunned Ukrainian pilots take the fight to Russia in ancient Soviet-era helicopters
CNN ^ | Fri February 17, 2023 | Sam Kiley and Olha Konovalova

Posted on 02/23/2023 7:54:46 AM PST by MinorityRepublican

(CNN) The horizon disappears for a moment as the nose of the helicopter rears. There's a faint thump as rockets trailing brown smoke arc ahead. The aircraft banks as if flicked on its side by an outside force.

Diving back towards to the ground it spurts flares from its tail to distract heat-seeking missiles.

Somewhere in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Russian soldiers are being torn apart, and burned, as the ground itself erupts when the rockets find their target. There's no time to reflect -- the effect of the rockets will get passed back to the pilots later. Their task now is to stay alive.

Ukraine's losses are a national secret. But pilots and air crew in the Sikorsky Brigade have all lost close friends to Russian SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles). Often shoulder launched, the man-portable missiles can send a helicopter into a ball of flame in seconds.

They're hunted. Whether airborne or not. Ukraine's air force and army aviators along with their planes and helicopters, are priority prey for Russia's missiles. They're likely top of the Kremlin's list.

CNN spent time embedded with the Sikorsky Brigade in eastern Ukraine operating from a secret base. It has a handful of helicopters and pilots there, conducting combat missions against Russian forces.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: russia; ukraine
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To: House Atreides
By the way, WHEN DOES THE UKRAINIAN INVASION of Transnistria and its INDEPENDENCE-MINDED INHABITANTS launch?

Never.

21 posted on 02/23/2023 10:24:04 AM PST by Timber Rattler ("To hold a pen is to be at war." --Voltaire)
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To: Timber Rattler

“ By the way, WHEN DOES THE UKRAINIAN INVASION of Transnistria and its INDEPENDENCE-MINDED INHABITANTS launch?
………………………………………..
Never.
***********************************************************

GOOD. But, IF IT DOES, should the American globalists immediately INSTITUTE BROAD SANCTIONS ON UKRAINE and anyone or any nation that supplies it with resources or weapons? And OF COURSE IMMEDIATELY CEASE ANY AND ALL DELIVERY OF MILITARY SUPPLIES to THE AGGRESSOR UKRAINIANS?


22 posted on 02/23/2023 10:32:05 AM PST by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA. -PRO-MAXI)
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To: House Atreides

There’s NO ifs, ands, or buts because your theoretical scenario will never happen. It’s just wishcasting on your part.


23 posted on 02/23/2023 10:43:59 AM PST by Timber Rattler ("To hold a pen is to be at war." --Voltaire)
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To: Timber Rattler

“There’s NO ifs, ands, or buts because your theoretical scenario will never happen. It’s just wishcasting on your part.”
******************************************************

Wow… you’re avoiding this subject like the plague. I’m assuming, as all clear thinkers would, that you don’t want to expose HYPOCRISY on your part. Right?


24 posted on 02/23/2023 11:15:14 AM PST by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA. -PRO-MAXI)
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To: BenLurkin

“”When the Ukraine is using outdated equipment it is portrayed as heroic.
When Russian is using outdated equipment it is portrayed as buffoonish.””

A year ago Russia was seen as a superpower, the world’s second most powerful military with many years of total revamping and modernization of their military and war machines and techniques.

Do you see why it is shocking to see Russia revealing they are second rate and that their vast store of armament was merely paper fantasies, while the poor country they are invading and losing to is seen as scrappy and effective with what they have?


25 posted on 02/23/2023 11:31:24 AM PST by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

They have to fight with the aircraft they have.


26 posted on 02/23/2023 11:43:05 AM PST by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: ansel12

Of course.

But any nation in that situation is sacrificing their pilots, and the quality will tend to decrease. We saw this in WWII very clearly. If Ukraine acquires “better planes and helicopters” that will be nice for them — but those will be piloted by greener kids who are easy to blow out of the sky.

You lose your good pilots when you send them up in bad planes.
You lose your good planes when you send them up with bad pilots.

They don’t have the option of sending good pilots up in good planes. So they do what they can, but the outcome won’t be pretty.


27 posted on 02/23/2023 11:53:13 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (“You want it one way, but it's the other way”)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I think we all see that better helicopters or better than lesser helicopters.

I just don’t see your point in mentioning it in the way you are, they need helicopters in the air right now, they are fighting a war right now, they are desperate to win battles and stave off defeats right now.


28 posted on 02/23/2023 11:57:52 AM PST by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: ansel12
A year ago Russia was seen as a superpower, the world’s second most powerful military with many years of total revamping and modernization of their military and war machines and techniques.

They didn't use their elite units properly in the Battle of Kyiv, their VDK paratroopers and Spetsnaz got wiped out. Rangers and Delta Force had a tough time at the Battle of Mogadishu back in 1992.

29 posted on 02/23/2023 12:46:05 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Mogadishu was a raid to make an arrest, and the Rangers did great fighting their way out of that ambush.

How does that compare to Russia’s military invading a nation and failing in trying to conquer the capital city?


30 posted on 02/23/2023 1:01:46 PM PST by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: ansel12

My point is that Ukraine is on the slope to defeat. The US keep shoveling money at a losing cause. And potentially risking nuclear war. The whole thing is stupid.


31 posted on 02/23/2023 2:15:58 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (“You want it one way, but it's the other way”)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I thought your point was about how the Ukrainian pilots are fighting, and whether they should be fighting with the helicopters they have or stay out of the war because they are too valuable to die in their current helicopters, it sure seemed that was what you were posting about.


32 posted on 02/23/2023 2:21:52 PM PST by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: BenLurkin

LOL, very true.


33 posted on 02/23/2023 2:28:44 PM PST by dforest (All of America has derailed.)
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To: BenLurkin
When the Ukraine is using outdated equipment it is portrayed as heroic.

When Russian is using outdated equipment it is portrayed as buffoonish.


Ukraine is small, underfunded (prior to the invasion), and has to make do with what they can get. Russia *is* a first-rate military that rivals these US, and can easily defeat any other non-US military.
34 posted on 02/23/2023 6:51:59 PM PST by Svartalfiar
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