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 shot down by a Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) militant with an SA-18 MANPADS on May 13.
The clip was posted on Saturday by Gerilla TV, which is associated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).
Starting at around 4:46 minutes into the footage, you can see a PKK fighter targeting the attack helicopter with a Russian/Soviet 9k38 Igla man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile.
The missile hits the chopper that starts to spin and breaks up mid-air before crashing behind a distant hill.
The Turkish Super Cobra was in the area to support Turkish soldiers engaged in clashes with the PKK.
A voice can be heard yelling “Cobra down! Well done!”
According to Rudaw, this is probably the first time the PKK have successfully used a MANPADS.
Taken during the 2012 Kaneohe Bay Airshow at Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on Sept. 30, 2012, the following picture shows a U. S. Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter, belonging to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 367 providing security as two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 463, Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) perform a HAAR (Helicopter Air-to-Air Refueling) demonstration from a KC-130 Hercules.
Image credit: U.S. Marine Corps
HAAR ops foresee five kind of rend-vous (RV) between the chopper and the tanker, with an initial vertical separation of 500 feet.
In four of them (“Bravo”, “Delta”, “Golf” and “Hotel” types of RV) the tanker approaches the receivers from the astern position and the subsequent overtake and rejoin of the receivers in refueler’s left wing take place after visual contact has been established. RV “Echo” is the only one in which the receiver maneuvers to rejoin with the tanker.
