The scene speaks for itself: you can crearly see the journalist presenting her report from the runway as several Hind gunships fly close to her. As many as 14 Mi-24s can be seen in the footage with the second one literally buzzing the journalist with the stub wing endplate missile pylon missing her head by a few inches…
Russian Mi-24 Attack or Mi-17 Transport Helicopters Could Augment Training Authenticity.
A report in the Marine Corps Times from Friday, April 27 by journalist Kyle Rempfer revealed that the U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Task Force Training Command has filed a solicitation for contractors to provide Russian-built Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter or an Mi-17 Hip transport helicopter to serve as accurate opposing forces threat simulation aircraft.
The aircraft would be equipped with electronic tracking pods for integration into simulated combat exercises at the MCAS Yuma Range and Training Area (RTA), a large training facility in the Arizona desert. The Yuma Range and Training Area accurately replicates current and potential threat environments throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
According to Rempfer’s report for the Marine Corps Times, the solicitation read in part,
“The [Mi-24] attack helicopter, due to its size, flight profile, firepower and defensive maneuvering capabilities, constitutes a unique threat creating a realistic, dissimilar and credible opposing force.”
In their potential role as a technically realistic opposing force flying against U.S. Marine ground forces in training the helicopters would accurately replicate the threat capabilities of many potential adversary forces. While the Mi-24 attack helicopter is primarily an air-to-ground attack helicopter the report also mentioned a potential role for any Russian helicopters acquired or contracted as providing a simulated opposing force capability against U.S. Marine Helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft to possibly include the UH-1Y Venom, AH-1Z Super Cobra and MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor.
The U.S. Marine Training Command’s request went on to read, “The scope of this effort is to provide familiarization of flight characteristics, capabilities and limitations of the foreign adversary rotary-wing and propeller driven aircraft,” according to the solicitation. “This will be accomplished by having accessibility to two foreign adversary contractor-provided aircraft that shall participate in certain exercise events as part of a realistic opposing force.”
The request for the opposing forces helicopters will include up to five annual training operations and a maximum of 40 total hours of flight time in VFR (daylight, fair weather Visual Flight Rules) conditions. Of further interest is a notation indicating interest in fixed wing aircraft. Russian fixed wing aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-27 have already been observed and photographed flying over the Nellis Training Range in Nevada.
A privately owned Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter at Nellis AFB, Nevada. (Photo: Tom Demerly/TheAviationist.com)
In the combined air/ground combat role most commonly performed by the U.S. Marine Corps one relevant adversary aircraft for threat simulation may include the Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO codename “Frogfoot”), although no specific information indicates an interest in the Su-25 from the U.S. Marines.
A remarkable 57 countries currently use the Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter, built at the Mil Helicopter Plant in Moscow, Russia. The aircraft is infamous in western nations for its rugged survivability and significant combat capability. The request for actual Mi-24 Hind helicopters seems to acknowledge the type’s unique and significant capabilities as a potential adversary.
There are currently at least two Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters privately owned in the U.S. by the Lancaster Air Museum in Lancaster, Texas. The aircraft fly frequently at events and airshows around the country.
On Jul. 9, a Russian Mi-35M helicopter was shot down by Daesh east of Palmyra the Russian MoD reported.
The gunship was flying a mission in support of the loyalist forces along with an Mi-24P Hind when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the ground killing the two crew members.
According to the latest reports, Daesh and rebels have grown their anti-aircraft capabilities by means of SAM (Surface to Air Missile) systems and MANPADS.
The Syrian regime has lost several aircraft due to anti-aircraft weaponry since the beginning of the uprising.
The F-15E saw action for the first time during Operation Desert Storm, the campaign aimed to free Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion: during the war the aircraft was mainly tasked to attack fixed and mobile Scud missile sites as well as Surface to Air Missile (SAM) ramps. And it was during Desert Storm that the F-15E scored its only air-to-air victory shooting down an Iraqi helicopter.
The kill was achieved on Feb. 14, 1991 by the F-15E #89-0487 call-sign Packard 41 from the 335th Fighter Squadron of the 4th Fighter Wing with Capt. Richard “TB” Bennett as pilot and Capt. Dan “Chewie” Bakke as WSO (Weapons System Officer).
Packard 41 was part of a flight of two F-15Es performing a Scud patrol, when the AWACS ordered them to destroy three Iraqi helicopters dismounting troops in the same zone in which several US Special Forces members were operating.
When the two Strike Eagles approached the target area, Packard 41 radar became intermittent, as explained by Bakke in Craig Brown’s book Debrief: A Complete History of U.S. Aerial Engagements – 1981 to the Present “What the radar was seeing was the rotation of the rotor blades, but it couldn’t hold a lock. So I decided to see if I can see them in the targeting pod.” Chewie saw two of the helicopters, or more correctly their rotors spinning in the LANTIRN pod. So he had to transition almost entirely to the pod, since as Bakke explained “the radar wasn’t much help at that point. Our mindset was turning to a ground attack…”
After TB and Chewie directed the other Strike Eagle to remain up in a high-cover and after having received the AWACS confirmation to destroy the enemy helicopters, they armed and selected one of their four GBU-10 Paveway II 2000-lb LGBs (laser guided bombs).
As Bakke himself recalls “TB queries me as to whether I’m good for a release. I’ve got good laser ranging to the target, but I hold off for just a little bit-no technical reason, just a gut feeling. Finally, I call ‘Cleared to Pickle’ and when TB pickles-off 2,000 pounds the aircraft immediately responded by shuttering and lurching upward.”
After having released the bomb TB performed a left designator turn but the GBU-10 time to impact quickly arrived to zero and he believed that the bomb had failed to impact. But at some point the bomb appeared on Chewie display: it was angled nose high, then started down and penetrated through the rotors, and the scintillation of the rotors as they disintegrated was easily discerned in the LANTIRN pod.
The GBU-10 then entered into the cockpit of the helicopter, and while it was coming out of the bottom of the aircraft the fuse delay functioned. Then a tremendous explosion disintegrated the helicopter in a huge fireball.
After this kill, Bennett and Bakke tried to engage the other two helicopters by using their AIM-9s, but since other Strike Eagles were dispatched to attack the remaining Iraqi choppers by dropping their bombs which could have hit Packard 41, TB and Chewie were forced to leave the zone.
Despite they lost the chance to shoot down the other two helicopters, Bennett and Bakke received the most important acknowledgment the day after, when the Black Hole (as the HQ in Riyadh was known) called them to express their gratitude for having downed an enemy Mil Mi-24 Hind gunship and saving 17 members of the Special Forces.
Image credit: Master Sgt. Lance Cheung / U.S. Air Force
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