Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Boston Globe
February 9, 2007
Pg. 1
Vulnerability complicates Baghdad effort
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- The increasing vulnerability of US helicopters ferrying troops and supplies could slow and potentially jeopardize the military's expanded mission to secure Baghdad, military officials said yesterday.
The loss of six helicopters in the past three weeks, at least four of them believed to be targets of enemy fire, has left the military scrambling for ways to protect the air space over Iraq.
In one new tactic aimed at helicopters, groups of insurgents have waited in places where helicopters frequently fly and then attacked with a combination of small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and other weapons, military officials said. The "swarming" strategy may have played a role in some of the recent crashes, according to officials familiar with ongoing investigations.
But with a new offensive aimed at securing Baghdad neighborhoods, and more troops operating out of the capital, commanders will not be able to reduce the number of flyovers without disrupting the military effort, they said. The only option to enhance helicopter safety is to frequently alter flight patterns.
"We have to continue to change our flight patterns and avoid a routine," Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Lopez , a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and a member of the Army's Aviation Task Force in the Pentagon, said in an interview. "But they [the insurgents] have become more and more mature, and it gets harder and harder to maintain the element of surprise."
Lopez also pointed out that helicopters are being used to avoid transport in convoys, which have been subject to repeated attacks by insurgents with improvised explosive devices.
"It is fast and has proven to be very, very effective," Lopez said of using helicopters rather than trucks to supply troops. "It also provides immediate response if you have troops who are in trouble."
The recent crashes come as US and Iraqi forces have started dispatching tens of thousands of additional troops to Baghdad, with the official start of the "surge" earlier this week.
The mission to secure Baghdad will require troops and equipment to be moved among the major bases ringing the capital, and in and out of the so-called green zone in the city center. Baghdad, one of the Middle East's most densely populated places, provides ample rooftops and other perches where insurgents can lie in wait for the immediately distinguishable sound of helicopter rotors.
Attacking helicopters has been a highly successful strategy for guerrillas in previous conflicts, including the Vietnam War and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980s. Helicopter crashes inflict more casualties than roadside bombings or other insurgent strategies.
So far, the military has lost roughly 60 helicopters in Iraq, according to a tally by the Brookings Institution in Washington, accounting for about 170 US troop deaths.
"If the insurgents can limit helicopter use . . . they gain in military as well as political terms," Anthony Cordesman , a military specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote in a paper published on his organization's website yesterday.
Moreover, Cordesman wrote, "the more media attention the insurgents can get through such attacks, the more likely it is that US domestic politics will increase pressure for withdrawal from Iraq or place limits on the use of US forces."
The Pentagon said yesterday that officials are still investigating the recent crashes, which involved Army and Marine Corps helicopters and at least one operated by a private Pentagon contractor. Investigators have not uncovered any evidence that insurgents used any new types of missiles or other weapons, but officials acknowledged that insurgents are increasing the frequency of their attacks on the helicopter fleet.
As a result, military officials have redoubled their efforts to identify innovative ways to protect the helicopters and vary their flight patterns. But the nature of the threat makes it particularly vexing.
While military helicopters are outfitted with a suite of high-tech sensors to detect radar-guided missiles and other high-tech weapons, they have little ability to deflect the more common arsenal of armed groups in Iraq.
"We do not have the ability to detect small arms, large caliber weapons, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]," Lopez said. "We have our own eyes and our own intuition."
One particularly worrisome scenario is when insurgents group together and unleash a barrage of different weapons when a helicopter flies nearby.
"An ambush can simply consist of training insurgent troops to 'swarm' their fire if a helicopter happens to fly by, or can consist of a wide variety of planned efforts to prepare for an attack," according to Cordesman's paper.
Lopez said the military is increasing its efforts to use on-the-ground intelligence to determine safer routes. He said each leg of helicopter flights -- whether to transport wounded soldiers and or deliver VIPs -- is painstakingly planned, and altitudes and flight profiles are tailored based on the best available intelligence.
"We break down the entire flight regime from takeoff to landing," he said. "We do not take off and stay at a standard altitude."
But he said the need to constantly change altitudes and flight profile also contributes to stress on pilots and equipment. And some specialists speculated that recent crashes attributed to pilot error may have been the result of the elaborate evasive maneuvers.
US military planners, meanwhile, remain on the lookout for any technical advancements on the part of insurgents.
"The technical ability of the insurgency continues to evolve," a 2006 military assessment asserted, citing recent attempts to fashion improvised explosive devices into aerial weapons.
"Helicopters are absolutely essential to every aspect of our operations in Iraq today," said Robert F. Dorr , an Air Force veteran and author of several books on military aviation. "I don't recall a previous time where there has been so much discussion about how they are vulnerable."
February 9, 2007
Pg. 1
Vulnerability complicates Baghdad effort
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- The increasing vulnerability of US helicopters ferrying troops and supplies could slow and potentially jeopardize the military's expanded mission to secure Baghdad, military officials said yesterday.
The loss of six helicopters in the past three weeks, at least four of them believed to be targets of enemy fire, has left the military scrambling for ways to protect the air space over Iraq.
In one new tactic aimed at helicopters, groups of insurgents have waited in places where helicopters frequently fly and then attacked with a combination of small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and other weapons, military officials said. The "swarming" strategy may have played a role in some of the recent crashes, according to officials familiar with ongoing investigations.
But with a new offensive aimed at securing Baghdad neighborhoods, and more troops operating out of the capital, commanders will not be able to reduce the number of flyovers without disrupting the military effort, they said. The only option to enhance helicopter safety is to frequently alter flight patterns.
"We have to continue to change our flight patterns and avoid a routine," Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Lopez , a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and a member of the Army's Aviation Task Force in the Pentagon, said in an interview. "But they [the insurgents] have become more and more mature, and it gets harder and harder to maintain the element of surprise."
Lopez also pointed out that helicopters are being used to avoid transport in convoys, which have been subject to repeated attacks by insurgents with improvised explosive devices.
"It is fast and has proven to be very, very effective," Lopez said of using helicopters rather than trucks to supply troops. "It also provides immediate response if you have troops who are in trouble."
The recent crashes come as US and Iraqi forces have started dispatching tens of thousands of additional troops to Baghdad, with the official start of the "surge" earlier this week.
The mission to secure Baghdad will require troops and equipment to be moved among the major bases ringing the capital, and in and out of the so-called green zone in the city center. Baghdad, one of the Middle East's most densely populated places, provides ample rooftops and other perches where insurgents can lie in wait for the immediately distinguishable sound of helicopter rotors.
Attacking helicopters has been a highly successful strategy for guerrillas in previous conflicts, including the Vietnam War and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980s. Helicopter crashes inflict more casualties than roadside bombings or other insurgent strategies.
So far, the military has lost roughly 60 helicopters in Iraq, according to a tally by the Brookings Institution in Washington, accounting for about 170 US troop deaths.
"If the insurgents can limit helicopter use . . . they gain in military as well as political terms," Anthony Cordesman , a military specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote in a paper published on his organization's website yesterday.
Moreover, Cordesman wrote, "the more media attention the insurgents can get through such attacks, the more likely it is that US domestic politics will increase pressure for withdrawal from Iraq or place limits on the use of US forces."
The Pentagon said yesterday that officials are still investigating the recent crashes, which involved Army and Marine Corps helicopters and at least one operated by a private Pentagon contractor. Investigators have not uncovered any evidence that insurgents used any new types of missiles or other weapons, but officials acknowledged that insurgents are increasing the frequency of their attacks on the helicopter fleet.
As a result, military officials have redoubled their efforts to identify innovative ways to protect the helicopters and vary their flight patterns. But the nature of the threat makes it particularly vexing.
While military helicopters are outfitted with a suite of high-tech sensors to detect radar-guided missiles and other high-tech weapons, they have little ability to deflect the more common arsenal of armed groups in Iraq.
"We do not have the ability to detect small arms, large caliber weapons, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]," Lopez said. "We have our own eyes and our own intuition."
One particularly worrisome scenario is when insurgents group together and unleash a barrage of different weapons when a helicopter flies nearby.
"An ambush can simply consist of training insurgent troops to 'swarm' their fire if a helicopter happens to fly by, or can consist of a wide variety of planned efforts to prepare for an attack," according to Cordesman's paper.
Lopez said the military is increasing its efforts to use on-the-ground intelligence to determine safer routes. He said each leg of helicopter flights -- whether to transport wounded soldiers and or deliver VIPs -- is painstakingly planned, and altitudes and flight profiles are tailored based on the best available intelligence.
"We break down the entire flight regime from takeoff to landing," he said. "We do not take off and stay at a standard altitude."
But he said the need to constantly change altitudes and flight profile also contributes to stress on pilots and equipment. And some specialists speculated that recent crashes attributed to pilot error may have been the result of the elaborate evasive maneuvers.
US military planners, meanwhile, remain on the lookout for any technical advancements on the part of insurgents.
"The technical ability of the insurgency continues to evolve," a 2006 military assessment asserted, citing recent attempts to fashion improvised explosive devices into aerial weapons.
"Helicopters are absolutely essential to every aspect of our operations in Iraq today," said Robert F. Dorr , an Air Force veteran and author of several books on military aviation. "I don't recall a previous time where there has been so much discussion about how they are vulnerable."