To answer that question, I took a short drive outside Kyiv today. The airport is a graveyard of burned out buildings and charred vehicles stacked on top of each other. Learn how your comment data is processed. He called, Heavy puffies [antiaircraft artillery rounds exploding] below us! said Captain Sheehy. If the fighter stays high and prosecutes its normal mission, it is nearly invulnerable to the helicopters weapons.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Q. But Ukraine's air defenses have been so effective that Russian pilots often fire their weapons while over Russia and never enter Ukrainian airspace. It was decided not to fire, and the aircraft was later determined to be a United Nations helicopter. We are not responsible for its distribution, nor do we endorse such content, he added. 
In that case, a pilot patrolling the zone south of the 32d parallel sighted a helicopter. The F-15C's fired two missiles -- a Sidewinder heat-seeking missile and an Amraam radar-guided missile -- after misidentifying the helicopters as Russian-made MI-24 "Hind" attack helicopters flown by Iraqis. Captain Sheehy called Blacklist and was informed that his target was an artillery site just inland from the pier at Mina Saad in Kuwait. A big mystery of the war in Ukraine is Russia's failure to gain control of the sky. This website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. The A-10s were briefed to go to a point a few miles from Mudaysis Airfield in southwest Iraq, where enemy planes had been found hidden in revetments in the desert. And as far as Doppler radars seeing rotorblades, I have hundreds of hours in a 4th gen helicopter that made that statement quite problematic., I have no idea why a fighter would engage an attack helicopter, and I can assure you if your erstwhile target is an Apache, KA-50 or Super Cobra with ATA missiles, expect to be surprised., Photo credit: U.S. Navy and Capt. There has been growing tension in northern Iraq that may have led the pilots to suspect that the Iraqis might try to violate the no-flight zone, including military exercises involving Republican Guard forces. The Russia-Ukraine. Captain Sheehy called Blacklist and informed the controller that he had been unable to hit the assigned target. KYIV, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recently that Ukraine's military had shot down its 200th Russian aircraft a figure few would have believed before the war began. For instance, the Warthog force was used only sparingly in the CAS role but proved more versatile and better able to survive over enemy territory than many expected. All rights reserved. The pilots started their engines, and Captain Sheehy called the 511ths operations center for his task. The base was still there, and, in the light of day, everything was fine, he remembered, but I still had no nosewheel steering. The sun was rising, revealing a fine day with clear skies below the aircraft and a thin layer of cirrus above them at about 27,000 feet. Captain Johnston delivered a similar attack on another of the Iraqi guns. Jay radioed that it looked like some of the bullets impacted the tail section. Efrem Lukatsky/AP document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); What are you waiting for? Gen. Richard Keller, Chief of Staff of the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. But some officials noted that the Blackhawk was carrying external fuel tanks that might have made it look more like the MI-24 and might have confused the Air Force pilots. Now life is returning to normal in many ways shops are open, people are on the street, traffic jams are becoming commonplace. The smoke trail abruptly stopped, and I watched the missile fall into the Gulf.. This would make Ukrainian ground forces very vulnerable, and they would have to worry constantly about being hit from the air. Russia has apparently taken some of them out and desperately want to eliminate all of them, but it hasn't been able to do so. Army Lt. Gen. Bryan P. Fenton is nominated to. An attack on the base was imminent, but the broadcast did not state the nature of the threat. After it made impact, he observed several large secondary explosions around the revetment. "Those are incredibly important to Ukraine," said Obrien. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Dario Leone, Via Mazzini 45, 27030, Langosco (Pavia), VAT IT 02787650189, Attack Helicopter Crews explain why an Attack Helicopter (if properly flown) would defeat most fighter airplanes in 1v1 air combat, I confirm that I have read, consent and agree to The Aviation Geek Club. As I looked out the side of the canopy, said the A-10 pilot, I saw a glowing orange ball with a long white smoke trail streaking toward me from the pier. Captain Sheehy located the pier without difficulty, and the pilots prepared to attack with bombs. Some A-10s took part in the initial air strikes, but most of the Warthog force was held on the ground at readiness to counter any incursion by Iraqi troops into Saudi Arabia. Granted, this tested helos that were loaded with air to air weapons (NOT typical), but still the Air Force left with the overall idea of leave enemy helicopters the f**k alone., A well equipped attack helicopter flown by a trained crew will defeat most fighter airplanes in 1v1 air combat, should the fighter be foolish enough to drop down to try and engage, Nick Lappos, Technical Fellow Emeritus at Sikorsky and former U.S. Army AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter pilot, said on Quora. He reported good hits and said the artillery barrage had stopped, said Captain Sheehy. That was just one battle. During the Persian Gulf war, American military commanders insisted that allied planes identify unknown aircraft by two separate means before firing on them. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this blog contents without express and written permission from this site's author/owner is strictly prohibited. JETS OVER IRAQ ATTACK OWN HELICOPTERS IN ERROR. There was all of that to think about, as well as the normal cockpit tasks of getting the aircraft off the airfield. Captain Sheehy never had to put the A-10s ruggedness to the test, for his aircraft never took a hit of any kind. Apaches can hide in the radar clutter at tree top level, and use the INCREDIBLY sophisticated Longbow system to track literally hundreds of targets simultaneously. The base was under attack. If Russia controlled the skies, its planes could hang out, loiter over the combat zone and target Ukrainian troops whenever they spot them. The fundamental axiom of the CAS mission is Better to kill no targets at all than risk accidental hits on friendly forces. Captain Sheehy was then directed to the offending enemy artillery positions and given clearance to attack. I have personally flown many such engagements in trials, and the facts are obvious to fighter and helicopter pilots who know. Typical helicopter turn rates are 30 to 40 degrees per second, three times that of the fighter, even at high g, so the fighter will find the helicopters weapons always engaging it during any serious contest. Captain Sheehy launched the Maverick from three miles and turned away. Captain Sheehy moved to what appeared to be a safe distance from the coast and tried to lock a Maverick missile on to a target, but there was insufficient image contrast to use the weapon. A single soldier fires these missiles from his shoulder, and they're very effective at taking down low-flying helicopters. Sometimes they briefly venture into the air over Ukraine to briefly fire their weapons but there are many cases where they shoot from afar, without ever entering Ukraine.
The Pentagon provided only a sketchy account of the episode, saying a full account had to await the completion of its investigation. The nosewheel steering had failed. A vertical video shared online does not show a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane, but comes from the videogame DCS. Our guys were definitely on the offensive..
That marked the point where the helicopter had gone down. Copyright 2022. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The current conflict is more than one country taking over another; it is in the words of one U.S. official a shift in "the world order. Defense Secretary William J. Perry postponed a long-scheduled trip to South Korea to oversee the investigation into the incident and steps to prevent such an attack from happening again. "The pilots of the F-15's feel they had positively identified the Hinds," said Lieut. But Ukrainian troops are at their base, civilians are combing back into the ravaged town. 82 500-pound bombs with radar airburst fuses, one infrared-guided Maverick missile and another with TV guidance, two AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles for self-protection, and 1,200 rounds of ammunition for the internally mounted 30-mm cannon. According to the account, the episode began when an Awacs radar plane detected the helicopters and asked the F-15C's to take a closer took. The Ukrainian military said on Feb. 24 that five Russian planes and a Russian helicopter were shot down in the Luhansk region. Accident Avoided Last Year. As if to emphasize the point that things could turn sour at any moment, his wingman gave a sudden Break right! call to avoid an upcoming SAM. Then, as quickly as they had arrived, they were back in the bunker.. As part of a panel discussion at Farnborough International Airshow, Hunter laid out his view of an Air Force acquisition and, Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond offered some of his early observations on the role of space activities in the war in Ukraine. So my first combat mission was definitely not going very well.. As he did so, he heard the controller in the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft trying to contact some A-10s that had departed the area. They probably set a world record for arming an A-10. Meanwhile, the helicopter can be equipped with air to air missiles and large caliber guns that easily engage fighters as they maneuver at low altitudes against a blue sky in their attempts to engage the helicopter. The Awacs asked the F-15C's to check again, and they again flew by the helicopters.
Q. A Ukrainian soldier examines a fragment of a Russian Air Force Su-25 jet after a battle at the village of Kolonshchyna, Ukraine, on April 21. Leaving Lieutenant Keller above to cover his attack, Captain Sheehy rolled inverted and pulled into a forty-five-degree dive. He has published some three dozen books, including The Spitfire Story, The Last Year of the Luftwaffe, and Battle of Britain: The Hardest Day. Here are some of the reasons Russia has so underperformed in the air, while Ukraine has overachieved. The helicopter if properly flown will always maneuver to cut off the angle from the airplane, forcing impossibly steep closure maneuvers for the fighter. But there have been no recent Iraqi violations of the no-flight zone in the north. Later that morning Captain Sheehy took off in another A-10. "If human beings make a mistake, you are left with a tragedy." The most beautiful sight is six pairs. It took the latter several minutes to transmit the exact positions of friendly forces in the area to Captain Sheehy, but that was an essential part of the operation. Captain Sheehy did as he was told, punching out chaff and decoy flares. . The shootdown led to the death of 290 Iranian passengers. Because its primary CAS mission was denied it for most of the conflict, interdiction made up the bulk of its sorties. Still, a senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the shootdown as an inexcusable blunder. After nearly a three-year pandemic hiatus, many of the world's top national security and foreign affairs officials gathered in Aspen, Colo., for the Aspen, The Senate Armed Services Committee asks the Space Force to develop a "comprehensive strategy" and formalize a plan to achieve its priorities in the SASC's version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization bill, which the committee released publicly July 18. "They don't threaten every Russian flight. The greatest loss of life from a case of mistaken identity was on July 3, 1988, when an American warship in the Persian Gulf shot down an Iranian airliner, fearing that it was an Iranian warplane preparing an attack. The Pentagon would not say if such an attempt had been made.
I rolled into a shallow dive and locked on to one of the revetted artillery vehicles with an IR Maverick.. According to a preliminary account of the episode provided to the Pentagon officials, the helicopters were shot down at 9:30 A.M. local time (3:30 A.M., Eastern time) about 35 miles north of Erbil, well north of the 36th parallel that defines the southern boundary of the zone that the United States, Britain and France declared off limits to Iraqi aircraft in 1991, after the end of the Persian Gulf war. The shootdown occurred despite detailed procedures that the military has established to tell friend from foe. U.S. We figured they were 57-mm rounds, and they could reach us at our altitude. Alarm Red! They simply are not comfortable flying in Ukraine for any extended period of time," said Professor Phillips Payson O'Brien, a military expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. By then the coalition forces were advancing so rapidly that the FACs usually refused to clear attacks because of the risk of hitting friendly forces. Adding to the mystery, senior military officials said today that American pilots had been informed about American helicopter operations in northern Iraq and that no Iraqi helicopters were known to have operated in the area since the flight ban was established. Soon afterward, the A-10 pilot saw a small cloud of dust and a dark object moving across the desert. Capt. I had not flown a sortie from that base at night; I had never even taxied there at night before. Captain Sheehy destroyed an Su-20 Fitter with cluster bombs and cannon fire and headed away from the area, climbing back to 20,000 feet. As I got closer, I identified it as an Mi-8 Hip helicopter moving fairly quickly, very low to the desert floor, said Captain Sheehy. A clip from the videogame Digital Combat Simulator has been miscaptioned online, with social media users claiming it shows a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane. Captain Sheehys next twenty-four sorties were against Iraqi artillery positions and vehicles situated well back from the border. Air Force pilots were shot down without even knowing the helicopters were there. Putting our noses down that chute with those gunners watching us just didnt seem like the smart thing to do.. The A-10s were starting to run low on fuel. Asked how they could have made such a mistake, General Keller said, "I honestly don't know.". Visibility decreased to about three miles, and, even though it was midday, under the clouds it was more like dusk, said Captain Sheehy. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Russia is still bombing from long distance and inflicting great destruction.
Military officials, who asked not to be identified, contrasted today's episode with an undisclosed incident that occurred last last year in the no-flight zone in southern Iraq in which an accidental shootdown was narrowly avoided.
There I was, on my first combat sortie, with a thousand thoughts running through my mind. Nobody stirred. Anyone can read what you share. The United Nations had not issued a flight plan for helicopter operations there, so the pilot asked for instructions from commanders on the ground in Saudi Arabia as to whether he should fire. Fighter pilots who face a trained, deadly and sneaky adversary in an attack helicopter will always see its missiles and guns, and never see a fleeing bunny to add to the kill list. People are picking up the pieces around Kharkiv after liberation by Ukrainian forces. If the helicopter gun and missiles were selected for anti-aircraft (like the 30mm guns on the Mi-24 and KA-50/51), the results are that the attack helicopter becomes like a rapidly mobile SAM site, a very dangerous target.. American planes carry a device that emits a special coded signal identifying them as friendly to other allied aircraft.
Installs Begin on Production EPAWSS for F-15Es, AFRICOM Nominee Calls for More ISR, SOCOM Nominee Names Uncrewed Systems, Loyal Wingman or Untethered Drone? Iterations of the miscaptioned simulator clip that have garnered thousands of views can be seen ( here ), ( here ), ( here ), ( here ). Eventually, he succeeded. The episode illustrated the difficulty that the American military has often encountered in devising effective procedures for telling friend from foe. Russia was expected to establish air superiority in the first days of the war. Matthias Techmanski, a spokesperson for Eagle Dynamics, confirmed to Reuters via email that the footage circulating on social media is from DCS. The Russians are believed to have at least 15 military aircraft for every one Ukraine has, and some estimates say the balance is even more lopsided. It was dark when Captain Sheehy and his wingman, Capt. Air Force pilots have several ways to check the identify of unknown aircraft. Another way pilots can try to determine the identity of an unknown plane is to try to make contact with it by radio using a special emergency frequency. But this isn't nearly as accurate or effective as having planes directly over the battlefield for extended periods, where they can adjust to the situation on the ground. One is visual inspection, and another is electronic. It was an eerie sight when the arming guys came running out in full chemical warfare gear, gas masks, suits, gloves, boots, flak vests, and helmets. But they can make the pilots jumpy enough that anywhere they want to fly there's a potential threat." During his remaining missions, he flew to the battle area, orbited, and returned with all his ordnance. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In the decade and a half leading up to the Persian Gulf War, the Air Force A-10 community worked hard to hone its skills in the difficult business of providing close air support (CAS) for ground forces. When the pair reached King Fahd IAP, Captain Sheehy was delighted to find that his earlier worries about the attack on the base were unfounded. With an attack imminent, all lights had been turned off, and I had to use my taxi light to find my way.
. Would we be able to repel the attack? We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The pilot eased on power to edge the Warthog out of its revetment, but, as he pushed the rudder pedal to turn the plane, it continued straight ahead. He and Captain Johnston returned to their original target and took advantage of the higher sun to deliver a quick, accurate attack, apparently unobserved by enemy gunners. As Sparky joined up off my left wing, my heart rate began to return to normal. Mr. Perry later ordered American warplanes to continue their patrols of the no-flight zones but to be less aggressive in enforcing the ban. They were big white balls with dark gray centers. Did it have a chemical warhead?. . He said he was returning to base and hoped to be back later. Part of the definition of the CAS mission is an air action against hostile targets . Ukraine has a relatively small number and it's not saying how many. How does Ukraine keep intercepting Russian military communications? Fuel was getting low, and the FAC had a set of AV-8B Harriers waiting, so we safed up our armament switches and pressed back to King Fahd. I took aim and started shooting at about 8,000 feet, firing about 300 rounds of 30-mm. Two Identifications Required. American officials said a senior American military officer working as a liaison with the Iraqi Kurds and a State Department adviser were among those killed in the attack. Social media users are sharing the story of a Ukrainian jet fighter that purportedly singlehandedly downed six Russian aircrafts, dubbed online as the Ghost of Kyiv. Reuters has not independently verified this account (more on this, here).