-Caveat Lector-
"``The Apache was essentially designed to fight World War III in Europe
...' "
Officers: Apaches Not So Vulnerable
By RICHARD PYLE
.c The Associated Press
TASK FORCE HAWK, Albania (AP) -- The Army's Apache attack helicopters were
designed specifically to defeat Soviet-made anti-aircraft weapons and are
capable of dealing with everything Serbia could throw at them, American
officers say.
That view was expressed here Wednesday after President Clinton told reporters
in Washington that the high-tech low-flying aircraft may never get a call to
action in Kosovo because of their vulnerability to portable shoulder-fired
missiles.
With the weather improving, ``most of what the Apaches could do'' can be done
by Air Force A-10 Warthog tank killers that fly at higher altitudes, Clinton
said. His words were backed up by Pentagon Spokesman Ken Bacon who also said
the 24 apaches now based at Tirana's airport would remain there for possible
use ``at the appropriate time.''
Clinton's comments came even as 5,000 troops at Task Force Hawk were enduring
``sandbag day,'' filling and carrying thousands of sandbags to help protect
the ever-expanding base from possible attack. Colonels and privates alike
pitched in to help.
The Apache pilots came here in mid-April and have trained intensively for
possible attacks on Serbian forces accused of driving nearly hundreds of
thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
The pilots were not accessible due to military security, but Capt. Mark
Arden, a spokesman for the 11th Regiment said it would be wrong to
underestimate the helicopters' ability to defend themselves.
``The Apache was designed to fight, essentially, World War III in Europe vs.
the finest anti-aircraft systems the Soviets can manufacture. At best, that's
what we face against the Serbs here,'' Arden said in an interview.
``To say the Apache is overly vulnerable to the threats presented by the
Serbs is to seriously discount all of the efforts put into developing the
Apache,'' he said. ``It is in fact designed to defeat everything they do have
out there.''
The Serbs are known to have a variety of Soviet-designed anti-aircraft
weapons, but the main threat to ``nap of the earth'' flying, as the Apache's
low-level, under-the-radar tactics are known, lies in the hand-held portable
missiles, especially the SA-7.
The SA-7 ``Strela,'' which means arrow in Russian, is a Vietnam era, Soviet
copy of the U.S.-made Redeye, a heat-seeking missile designed to hone in on
an aircraft's exhaust.
When first used by communist troops in Vietnam in 1971, Strelas took a sharp
toll of helicopters until U.S. pilots improvised ways to thwart them, such as
diverting hot exhaust into the main rotor's wash.
Most later military helicopters have been designed or built with
missile-defense countermeasures. The Apaches' include special armor, a
reduced infrared signature and dispensers that spit out hot flares and chaff
to confuse heat-seeking and radar-homing projectiles.
``The Apache is designed to overcome, defeat enemy surface to air missiles,
particularly the SA-7,'' Arden said. ``The Apache was built around defeating
that older technology. They have some newer stuff, but so do we.''
Arden said that he was ``certainly not denying that there is risk, but there
is risk to the A-10s and F-16s as well, and they're doing a great job
defeating those risks, just as we would expect to do a great job defeating
the enemy systems.''
The Apaches, armed with a rapid-firing 30 mm cannon, 2.75 inch rockets and
tank-busting Hellfire missiles train and perform alongside the Air Force's
A-10 attack jets in a Joint Air Attack Team (JAAT) concept.
``We hope to get the opportunity to work side by side'' with the A-10s, Arden
said. ``I think the most is brought out of both capabilities when they
compliment each other.''
He parried a question as to whether Clinton's remarks might be a reflection
of political pressure to keep the Apaches out of the fight, which Clinton
himself denied.
``I'm sure he's got excellent military advisers who, if they feel the A-10 is
the right weapon to use right now, I'd trust their judgment. We're just
soldiers here, ready to do our mission when called upon,'' he said.
``We just want to go out there and prove what we can do.''
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