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Insurgents targeting helicopters

A US Army CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter files over Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Iraq, last Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

A deputy commanding general in Iraq whose duties include aviation said on Sunday that insurgents had adopted new tactics and stepped up their efforts to shoot down US helicopters. He also acknowledged that the rash of recent incidents included a previously unreported downing of a Black Hawk late last month.

The unreported incident took place on Jan. 25 near the town of Hit when a Black Hawk was struck by automatic weapons fire from the ground, said Major General Jim Simmons, a deputy commanding general for the US-led Multi-National Force in Iraq. All aboard were evacuated and there were no casualties, Simmons said.

Depending on the outcome of an investigation into the crash last Wednesday of a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, the latest report brought the number of US military and civilian helicopters shot down in Iraq in the past 21 days to six or seven. Simmons said that preliminary findings suggested the Sea Knight went down because of mechanical problems, but some witness reports indicated that the helicopter was shot down. All seven people aboard died.

"I will tell you that someone who is involved in a fight, who is adaptive and thinking, will develop the tactics to be able to engage people," Simmons said, speaking of the insurgents. "I believe that is what we have seen here."

Simmons said he also believed that the insurgents might be especially motivated to shoot down helicopters as a way of discrediting the new US and Iraqi security plan.

The US military effort in Iraq depends heavily on moving cargo, weaponry and troops by helicopter and any disruption of the flights would therefore have a major impact on that effort.

The general acknowledged for the first time that the US military had altered its flight patterns and schedules as a result of the downings, but added: "We have not canceled one mission``` and there has been absolutely no reduction in rotary wing aircraft flight. Nor will there be."

He said that helicopter transport had become ever more critical over the past few years as ground convoys have become increasingly dangerous. In 2005, Army helicopters logged 240,000 hours, and last year the figure was 334,000 hours, Simmons said. The projected number for this year is 400,000 hours, he said.

"In many cases, it's more efficient, it's more effective to move people and supplies by air than it is by ground," the general said. He added that it had also generally been safer.

Battles between insurgents on the ground and US helicopters in the air have by no means been rare at any time during the conflict. Since December 2004, Simmons said, helicopters had been engaged by hostile forces about 100 times a month, mostly by small arms and automatic weapons, but occasionally by shoulder-fired missiles. On average, 17 US helicopters have been hit each month.

As a result of those engagements, 29 Army helicopters had been shot down in the entire conflict, he said. He did not immediately have the total including Marine and other helicopters, but an unofficial tally by the Brookings Institution indicated that since the beginning of the conflict, 57 US military helicopters have either crashed or been shot down.

Among recent tactics by insurgents was firing on helicopters with heavy machine guns from more than one direction at once, Simmons said. He said that had been the case in the Jan. 20 downing of a Black Hawk in which 12 men died.
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