Emerged on Sept. 15, new footage allegedly shows a helicopter being shot down over Nubbol (a small town in northern Aleppo province) Jun. 30, 2013 by rebels using an FN-6 MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense System).
Developed in China, the FN-6 is a third generation passive IR (Infrared) surface-to-air missile with a range of 6 km and a maximum altitude of 3.5 km.
Several MANPADS are in the hands of the Free Syrian Army that is using them to shoot down Assad’s planes and helicopters.
David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written four books.
Update Aug. 7, 2012 23.45 GMT Read the comment thread for more information about the helicopter, identified as prop. Although I’m not sure the one depicted in the photo below is really a new stealth […]
Previous debriefings: Archive Since there’s no significant change in the battlefield nor any evident sign of an attempt to get out of the stalemate, the news of the day is that two photojournalists, Oscar-nominated filmmaker […]
A clip posted on Youtube shows the downing a Turkish AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter with a MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense System). A video posted online appears to show a Turkish AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter […]
