A clip filmed with a smartphone shows a formation of Special Ops helicopters at work north of Baiji in Iraq.
Although the quality of the footage is pretty bad, the clip in this post, filmed by Iraqi forces north of Baiji, Iraq, is extremely interesting.
It shows a formation of four U.S. MH-60 and two MH-47E choppers, followed by two more Black Hawks, flying at very low level during a mission somewhere in Iraq.
The helicopters belong to the US Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) “Night Stalkers”, a Special Operations unit that has been quite active in the region since August 2014. More recently, the 160th SOAR took part in a “daring” raid to kill ISIS high level operative Abu Sayyaf, in eastern Syria.
Here below you can find a couple of screenshots:
Noteworthy the helicopters are not flying under the cover of night: returning from a raid or heading towards the target?
This is how U.S. Special Forces would cope with a hostage rescue situation.
On May 21, the United States Special forces performed a public demonstration of their tactics used in a hostage rescue situation in Downtown Tampa as part of the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference.
In an Act of Valor-like scenario, the demo gave the public the opportunity to see a Special Operation unfold in the channel behind the Tampa Convention Center supported by 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) “Night Stalkers” MH-60s and MH-6Ms helicopters.
160th SOAR is the U.S. Army special ops force which provides support for both general purpose and special operations forces flying MH-47G Chinooks, MH-60L/K Black Hawks, A/MH-6M Little Birds choppers and, since Dec. 2013, MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones, (along with MH-X Silent Hawks involved in the Osama Bin Laden raid possibly along with some stealthy Chinooks and, maybe, some stealthy Little Birds).
The above video was produced pro-bono by Right Hand Films for the benefit of the City of Tampa in honor of Memorial Day 2014 “and as a dedication to the men and women who have lost their lives defending our country, whom we honor this memorial day.”
One Su-27 Flanker aircraft supporting a special operation to regain control on a military airfield taken from pro-Moscow separatists was reportedly shot down.
On Apr. 15, Ukrainian armed forces launched a special operation to recapture the airport near the town of Kramatorsk, in the Russian speaking east, taken by pro-Moscow separatists.
The operation involved several Ukrainian troops disembarked from helicopters and supported from the air by at least four combat planes: two Su-27 Flanker fighter jets and Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes.
Here below is a footage showing a Su-27 circling at low altitude, relatively low speed, over Kramatorsk: a quite easy target for trained soldiers using MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense Systems) or other Anti-Aircraft weaponry.
The news of the Su-27 shot down was spread along with a video allegedly showing the Su-27 (or generally speaking, a Ukrainian aircraft) being shot down even if that was actually footage shot in Syria last year.
Fake:
Real:
H/T to Steppen Wolf for providing additional material.
It’s almost impossible to imagine the self discipline required to be stuck inside one of those for long periods of time but, believe it or not, Exint pods, man-carrying pods designed to be carried by fast jets and choppers exist.
They were conceived as an alternate method of inserting and extracting special forces (or wounded soldiers) and were developted by AVPRO UK Ltd in the late 1990s. They were reportedly tested on the Harrier jump jet, the AH-64 Apache and, according to some sources, were as still are certified for use on the Israeli AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters.
Bjørn Broten, a reader of The Aviationist has found a couple of images of the Exint pods on a militaryphotos.net forum thread.
According to several sources, a similar pod, dubbed GRIER (Ground Rescue Insertion Extraction Resupply) was designed by the McDonnell Douglas for the AV-8B Harrier, but it was never used (or, at least, there is no evidence of it being used) most probably because of the proximity of the pylon used to carry the pod to the noisy rotating jet nozzles of the Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine.
More recently, Special Forces have been carried on the weapon-carrying stub wings attack helicopters: the image below shows an Italian Army A-129 Mangusta chopper carrying two soldiers hanging from the helicopter’s landing gear legs.
Image credit: Militaryphotos.net & The Aviationist’s Giovanni Maduli
It’s almost impossible to imagine the self discipline required to be stuck inside one of those for long periods of time but, believe it or not, Exint pods, man-carrying pods designed to be carried by fast jets and choppers exist.
They were conceived as an alternate method of inserting and extracting special forces (or wounded soldiers) and were developted by AVPRO UK Ltd in the late 1990s. They were reportedly tested on the Harrier jump jet, the AH-64 Apache and, according to some sources, were as still are certified for use on the Israeli AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters.
Bjørn Broten, a reader of The Aviationist has found a couple of images of the Exint pods on a militaryphotos.net forum thread.
According to several sources, a similar pod, dubbed GRIER (Ground Rescue Insertion Extraction Resupply) was designed by the McDonnell Douglas for the AV-8B Harrier, but it was never used (or, at least, there is no evidence of it being used) most probably because of the proximity of the pylon used to carry the pod to the noisy rotating jet nozzles of the Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine.
More recently, Special Forces have been carried on the weapon-carrying stub wings attack helicopters: the image below shows an Italian Army A-129 Mangusta chopper carrying two soldiers hanging from the helicopter’s landing gear legs.
Image credit: Militaryphotos.net & The Aviationist’s Giovanni Maduli
