Helicopters down in Afghanistan and Iraq

[regi]

a Russian chopper went down near Herat, killing 13 people

read:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7830652.stm

[regi]

another one : 3 casualties:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8137585.stm

1 Brittish, 2 Canadians died, 3 wounded among them the 2 pilots.
Cause not by enemy fire.

Personall remark: why do "they" always say that the cause is not by enemy fire, despite they don't know yet what the cause was?
If ground personnel is under severe stress because of continuous rocket atacks at their bases, and makes mistakes or postpones maintenance, the cause is indirectly to blame to enemy fire.

[regi]

And one more Chinook down in Afghanistan. This time the MoD immediately confessed that the Chinook was taken out by small arms fire in Helmand province. Afterwards it was bombed by their own aircraft so no equipment would fall in the hands of Taliban

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 803988.ece

small personnal notes:

• If they have to bomb that Chinook to prevent it falls in the hands of the Taliban, does that mean that the Taliban controls that area? There are > 100,000 NATO troops in that country. Are they really uncapable to secure a 500 meter perimeter? In that case, I call it Dien Bien Phu second edition
  Now that Canada has ordered 15 new ones , maybe the Brits can add one extra ?
  Knowing that 8 new Chinooks wait for their program files from Boeing in a hangar I think it is time to call in some hackers and reprogram the things.
  Or maybe it is time to leave Afghanistan because we westerners cannot win this war of attrition?
  Cost: from 32 million £ to 62 milion pound a piece after the conversion from a special type to the normal type. Try to explain to a normal civilian that if you buy a Mercedes AMG ( which costs the double of a normal Merc ) and you want to change it into a normal taxi kind of Mercedes, it gonna cost you the double of an AMG.

[regi]

3 more choppers down in Afghanistan.
As been reported before: same pattern: no details, just the remark that it is not due to enemy fire.
But more alarming: the report seems to talk about 2 choppers, but at the end they mention a third one.
In the mix of information we are also " comforted" by the news that many enemies have been killed.
Sad to see that this propaganda talk "Vietnam style" ( body count ) has also been taken over by the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8325362.stm

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast ... index.html

When you read the Al Jazeera report, you will out that it leaves out the typical rethoric.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/ ... 79474.html

By the way: no word about what kind of choppers at all

[regi]

more news: the third chopper was taken down in an action against drugs
only in Dutch:

http://www.nu.nl/algemeen/2109205/botsi ... istan.html

[regi]

and now a V-22 Osprey down in Afghanistan, killing 4.3 military and 1 civilian.
I gues this is one of the costliest crashes of an aircraft in Afghanistan during the war over there. ( except of the

I wasn't aware that the Ospreys in Afghanistan had been armed with a belly pod .
Interesting reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-22_Osprey

and a list of all the related crashes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Co ... fghanistan

In Dutch:
http://www.vandaag.be/buitenland/32334_ ... doden.html

and CNN follows:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiap ... tml?hpt=T2

[regi]

another one, 4 casualties, shot down by RPG.
Most important in this message is that the chopper was brought down by an unguided RPG, and not a SAM .
As long as the USA can keep the SAM's out of Afghanistan and Iraq, they keep the initiative. Otherwise, they will have to leave immediately - see the Russians against the Stingers.
For now they can keep the people back home at ease with messages such as "lucky shot" . But the Taliban speaks about 2 rockets being fired.
Nowhere I could find the type - yet.
It comes hardly in the news, but this week alone, 20 foreign coalition fighters of the occupation force have been killed . 29 in total for June already.
Overall in Afghanistan, and soldiers from different countries. It is not going very well, dear chaps.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10274262.stm
Four Nato soldiers have been killed when their helicopter was shot down in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Nato says.

[regi]

4 died ( 3 Australians + 1 USA ) in a new crash in Kandahar
No enemy fire
no news yet on the type and cause.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_p ... 363351.stm
http://www.news.com.au/national/more-au ... 5882394367

[regi]

and another went down , with 9 dead and 3 wounded:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11378948
don't bother to read the article: besides of "southern Afghanistan" and that it is not by enemy fire, there are almost no details.

CNN is more precise telling it are US service men.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiap ... tml?hpt=T2

surprise, surprise, the most detailed report so far comes from ...Fox News!
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/21 ... pper-crash

The witness speaks about noise and smoke in the air, before the crash. So, still no enemy fire
And the article mentions a Taliban statement of shooting it down.

And no word about the type.
My guess it is a Black Hawk , but they don't want to admit it in the view of the large sell of BH's to Saudi Arabia.
"A US defence official told Reuters today that the US and Saudi Arabia are discussing a package that includes 84 new F-15 fighter jets, upgrading another 70 of them as well as buying 72 Black Hawk helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corporation."

[earthman]

And the article mentions a Taliban statement of shooting it down.

Didn't they even claim responsibility for hurricane Katrina?

[regi]

still not clear what type went down.
But my guess it was a BH becomes more real:

A father of a Clark County, Washington, soldier said his son was among the victims of the crash. Rod McClellan told The Columbian newspaper that 26-year-old Army Chief Warrant Officer Jonah McClellan was among the dead. The younger McClellan was a Blackhawk helicopter pilot with the 101st Airborne; it was unclear if he was flying the helicopter that crashed.

update:
bull's eye: a Black Hawk
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39282298/ns ... ntral_asia

I bet that the Americans would have mentiond the type faster if it was such a rented Russian chopper.

[regi]

And the article mentions a Taliban statement of shooting it down.

Didn't they even claim responsibility for hurricane Katrina?

Don't know about the Taliban claiming Katrina, but I know that you can't joke about Al Quaida its claims:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/afric ... tml?hpt=T1

[Desert Rat]

A good book that I recommned you to read on the British Army's Apaches in Afganhistan:

Hellfire written by Ed macy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNP1lbLNKqA

[regi]

1 helicopter was lost in the operation to take out OBL in Islamabad, Pakistan.

No words of Amercian casulaties. The helicopter was destroyed by the Americans after the crash.

I don't understand why they did not retrieve the helicopter in a befriended state, in a non combat environment.
Possible explanation: maybe there was some technology on board that they did not want to pass in other hands, not Pakistan or even the Chinese who are a major supplier to Pakistan of military equipment.

[earthman]

They should take better care of their helicopters! What is the matter, as soon as their mechanics learn how to do proper maintenance, they leave to work for a commercial operator at four times the pay?

Correction, apparently they ran the thing into a wall. My apologies to the mechanics.

[earthman]

I don't understand why they did not retrieve the helicopter in a befriended state, in a non combat environment.
Possible explanation: maybe there was some technology on board that they did not want to pass in other hands, not Pakistan or even the Chinese who are a major supplier to Pakistan of military equipment.

Apparently, the whole chopper was a top-secret stealthy model of the back hawk that nobody even knew existed.

[regi]

yes, just read it myself. And..with my same remark that they are afraid that the technology would fall in the hands of the Chinese !
I start to get the feeling that I am a analyst
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/10096/Osama-bi ... nval.dhtml

[andorra-airport]

CGI OF POTENTIAL HELICOPTER USED IN OPERATION AGAINST OSAMA BIN LADIN


http://ezli007.blogspot.com/2011/05/top ... ogram.html

[Roser]

Once again the US made a mess of an operation. Remember some twenty years ago the loss of several aircraft during the liberation of the Teheran hostages.

Beside this why did the US need to start their Osama operation with choppers. Arriving by armoured cars with Pakistani help would be much better. Even the killing of an unarmed Osama is a big mistake.

[regi]

The Pakistanis say they will not transfer technology of the wreckage of the chopper.
Knowing a bit diplomatic talk and Asian culture, you have to read it exactly as it stands: they will not do it because they have done it already.
http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/3802/Osama-bin-L ... open.dhtml