"American officials say a streak of crashes strongly suggests that insurgents have changed tactics and are putting more effort into shooting down aircraft."
"Historically, improved tactics in shooting down helicopters have provedto be important factors in conflicts in which guerrillas have achieved victories against major powers, including battles in Somalia,Afghanistan and Vietnam."
Video of recent attack here
Update:
"Documents captured from Iraqi insurgents indicate that some of the recent fatal attacks against American helicopters are a result of a carefully planned strategy to focus on downing coalition aircraft, one that American officials say has been carried out by mounting coordinated assaults with machine guns, rockets and surface-to-air missiles."
3 comments:
"..conflicts in which guerrillas have achieved victories against major powers, including battles in Somalia,Afghanistan and Vietnam."
Neither fo those are good examples of acheiving victory against superpowers. Afghanistan guerillas could have never won the fight and would have continued to have been slaughtered had it not been for the CIA supplying them with Stinger missiles to shoot down the helicopters. The only reason we left Somalia is because people in this country are idiots. Task Force Ranger took casualties and wanted to stay and kill the shit out of Aidids militia. The American public was fearful for their saftey and wanted an imediate withdrawl (that makes sense right? Warfighters want to stay but people overseas who don't know crap about the situation want them to come home). And Vietnam...Insurgents took massive casualties, but the American public pressured the withdrawl.
This has only taught people like Osama Bin Laden that when we take casualties we will leave. That's why it's worth it for them to stick it out even if we're capturing or killing around a 100 insurgents a day in Iraq. Same goes for Afghanistan.
If we do what many want us to do and just leave... it will just further amplify the point of terrorists. The al-qeida fighters we aer fighting in Iraq won't pack up their bags and go home... they will go to the next place where they can fight us. If we follow this path the next place will eventually be in the US.
They don't know the nature of the weapon that's shooting these helicopters down. Most surface to air missiles are heat seeking missiles. We have technology against it but I don't think the pilots are utilizing it because we still aren't sure if insurgents have the technology.
We have the technology but the reaction time for a helicopter is minimal. The usual tactics to avoid these attacks are to fly just above the tree-tops but as we know there aren't many wooded areas in Iraq. Because of this, we have no cover for our helos and then they can be easily targeted by RPG's. With an RPG you have about 3-4 seconds to recognize the threat AND manuever to avoid it. It's a no-win situation.
Josh Evirs
POLS 389
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