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US aircraft now a growing target for insurgents in Iraq

The crash of an Army helicopter in Iraq on Friday, coupled with two others that were struck by ground fire in the last two weeks, reflects a growing threat by insurgents taking aim at US aircraft, military officials said.

Even beyond these aircraft -- one of which had already landed when it was struck -- there has been a sharp increase in recent weeks in attacks against other US helicopters, whose defenses are limited, the officials said.

The defenses, which can include radar-detection systems and chaff dispensers, are designed to guard against missiles, the officials said, but not rocket-propelled grenades. If the Black Hawk that went down near Tikrit on Friday, killing all six soldiers aboard, was struck by ground fire, the likely source would have been a grenade.

Even anti-missile systems are of limited effectiveness, military officials said, observing that they apparently failed to prevent the downing last weekend of the Chinook helicopter in which 16 US soldiers were killed.

The Chinook attack was the single deadliest attack of the war for US forces, and it has raised questions from members of Congress about whether the Army adequately equips its helicopters to defend against shoulder-fired missiles and other weapons.

A former senior officer in the Army's 101st Airborne Division, the unit that uses the most helicopters, said that the defensive systems are not foolproof, so pilots must also rely on rudimentary evasive tactics. These include flying low and fast as well as asking passengers and crew to keep a close lookout for ground fire.

"Everyone in the aircraft would be looking out the windows for glints of sunlight indicating that someone was aiming at you," said the officer, who served in Iraq for several months earlier this year. "You'd advise the pilots of what you saw and they'd take evasive procedures."

A Pentagon spokesman said the cause of Friday's crash was still under investigation, but military officials said reports from the scene made them believe that the Black Hawk had been brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade. A rocket-propelled grenade hit another Black Hawk near Tikrit on Oct. 25 after the craft landed to support a US patrol, Army officials said.

A fourth Army helicopter, an Apache, was blasted out of the sky by ground fire earlier this year during a raid on a suspected terrorist camp, Army officials have said.

The downing of US helicopters by ground fire is not new. Rocket-propelled grenades were used by insurgents in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October, 1993 to shoot down two helicopters in the battle depicted in the book and film Black Hawk Down.

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