> Kelsey[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >How ever I wonder if the report of an Apache > >helicopter being shot down by a farmer with his > >rifle-the chopper was certainly downed but I find it > >hard to beleive that a bullet brought it down. > > I heard (I think on BBC) that a whole bunch of the choppers we sent out on > > some mission came back so shot up they were basically unsalvageable. It > sounded like they'd been hit with small arms fire, but I don't know enough > > about the different kinds of helicopters used (I think these were Apaches) > > to know if that's plausible. Anti-aircraft artillery, SAMs, or those > Russian 20mm anti-aircraft machine guns might have done the damage. Or > maybe they really were messed up badly by hundreds of rounds of 7.62 mm, > but it sure seems like it would be unhealthy to be one of the people > shooting at the helicopters in that situation--like a bunch of people > shooting at a lion with .22 pistols or something. Even if you eventually > > drive the helicopter off, it's going to leave a big pile of bodies behind! > I recently read a military report (I wish I kept the URL) about small arms fire vs low-flying aircraft. The upshot is that it's a lot more effective than you expect, if you have enough guns and the sense to coordinate them to create a 'wall of lead' in the area the aircraft is about to fly through.
I expect that a helicopter hovering low over a city is pretty damn vulnerable. Peter Trei
