In Iraq, it’s not uncommon for Americans to fly from the Green Zone in Baghdad to the military headquarters at Camp Victory, just a few miles away. That’s the danger handmade bombs along the road represent.
So insurgents are altering their strikes, “attacking U.S. helicopters in Iraq with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that leap into the air and detonate when an aircraft passes nearby,” writes Defense News’ Greg Grant, who just returned from Iraq.
Insurgents, who place these aerial IEDs along known flight paths, trigger them when American helicopters come along at the typical altitude of just above the rooftops. The devices shoot 50 feet into the air, and a proximity fuze touches off a warhead that sprays metal fragments, said Brig. Gen. Edward Sinclair, commander of the Armys Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.
The bomb-builders may be obtaining radio-guided proximity fuzes from old Iraqi anti-aircraft and artillery shells and mortar rounds.
Sinclair said these aerial IEDs have been used against multiple U.S. helicopters. He declined to say whether such IEDs had damaged any aircraft.
The new weapon is one way insurgents are taking on Army aircraft, which come under fire between 15 and 20 times a month, Sinclair said. Other methods include small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and advanced shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
The enemy is adaptive, Sinclair said. They make changes in the way they fight; they respond to new flying tactics.
The AP is reporting that “a U.S. military helicopter crashed north of the Iraqi capital Monday — the third American chopper to go down in 10 days — killing the two crew members. A resident said he saw the smoke trail of a missile before the aircraft plunged to the ground.”
Can we get out now !
If its missile strikes I wonder if those Syrian Man Pads the Russian sold awhile back have showed up in Iraq old Assad must be mighty pissed he’s on the ropes. Motive is definitely there. Or maybe Iran is funneling a knock of sorts they have big time motive to draw our attention off them.
This super bouncing betty thing sounds plausible but I am skeptical. The set up for such a device would be pretty damm big I would imagine at least truck bed size and couple hundred pounds at least. Not to mention an Apache is a pretty hard target would have to be pretty close in the air making the timing a b*tch. Big difference between a Humvee at 40mph at point blank and an Apache at 100+mph 50′ above the point, timing that damm. Seems easier to try with a mortar or cannon like device on a truck hell Katusha battery even.
This is interesting thou and not in a good way either.
Interesting article. Similar devices were used by the VC in Cu Chi to bring down helicoptors starting in 1966. Dude named To Van Duc invented something called the cane-pressure mine that used 4 wired together grenades with a friction fuse. He placed that sucker at treetop level and waited for the downdraft to set off the fuse. Ingenious and deadly.
Looks like the insurgents know their history.
Treetop level flight would expose them to ground fire. For a air IED, the most likely mechanism would be a mortar with shells modified for airburst in mid-flight.
Why worry about timing? Would it not be feasible to prime an RPG round with an electric blasting cap and allow the static electric discharge from the rotary wing aircraft cause the proximity effect?
Well, it seems that it took two days for this news to reach DefenseTech after another which alerted me in advance. That was pretty slow…
Cord: Would a Iraqi insurgent be able to procure the instrumentation for a static-based detonation system? They can get infra-red systems for detonators from machinery, the radio-based stuff from garage door openers etc.
Gentlemen,
I am quite an Old Crow now and we have been attacked by “Helicopter Mines” since Vietnam.
The first were LZ emplaced trash cans full of explosives and shrapnel called a “fougasse” that were command detonated. If insurgents were planting a lot of IR or Radar proximity mines, we would have found factories or examples.
Best wishes to the troops…
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