Apache Helicopter Crews Sent to Albania Had
Readiness, Equipment Problems
By Tony Capaccio
(Includes reaction in graph 7-9 from U.S. congressman who
plans a Capitol Hill hearing on the readiness issue).
Washington, June 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. AH-64 Apache
helicopter crews dispatched with great fanfare to Albania in mid-
April for attacks on Serb armor and artillery units in Kosovo
were under-trained and poorly equipped for their mission,
according to a unit commander.
The crews of Task Force Hawk were minimally qualified to use
night vision goggles, had shortages of specialized radios
necessary for low-level night attacks and lacked effective
electronic warfare gear to defeat Serb air defenses, according to
Army Brig. Gen. Richard Cody, a unit commander, in a June 16 memo
to Army headquarters.
The aviators and helicopters never saw combat in Kosovo in
spite of tremendous political and public pressure to do so.
Instead, they spent the first three weeks of the deployment
intensely training to make up for readiness shortfalls, Cody
wrote in a mid-June memo to Army leaders in Washington, including
new Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki. Two choppers crashed
during night training exercises, killing two aviators.
''After 16 full-up mission rehearsal exercises, I would put
Task Force Hawk pilots and commanders up against anyone, but it
was painful and high-risk during the first three weeks in
Albania,'' wrote Cody, who is assistant division commander at the
4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Chronic Problem
The deployment highlighted a chronic problem with aviation
training that resulted in a failure to produce fully qualified
air warriors, he wrote.
''We are placing them and their unit at risk when we have to
ramp up for a real world crisis,'' Cody wrote of inadequately
prepared aviators, of which ''Task Force Hawk is not an
anomaly.''
Cody's memo has prompted a senior member of the House Armed
Services Committee to schedule a hearing within the next two
weeks to examine the readiness of Task Force Hawk.
''I find it disturbing,'' said Representative Herb Bateman,
a Virginia Republican who chairs the committee's readiness panel,
of the Cody memo.
''I will call the general to testify and the Army can send
anybody that it wants,'' Bateman said. Cody's memo will be the
main focus of the hearing, said Bateman, who for several years
has conducted hearings and commissioned reports by the U.S.
General Accounting Office on readiness issues.
Previous Army Statements
Bateman said Cody's memo was particularly disturbing in
light of statements from Army officials in April that the
helicopter crews were the best trained of any aviation unit in
the service for the Kosovo mission.
About 65 percent of the crews had less than 500 hours of
flying time in the Apache and none was qualified to fly some
common night combat missions, wrote Cody.
The memo disclosed no technical problems with the $16
million Boeing Co. Apaches, which are made at its Mesa, Arizona,
plant.
Cody's memo was first disclosed by Legis-Slate, a Washington
D.C. based online news service. Bloomberg News obtained its own
copy of the six-page memo.
The memo is a standard after-action report, said Army
spokesman Lt. Col. Lew Boone.
''Gen. Cody answered in a frank, open and honest manner as
we expect are general officers to do. We do recognize we need to
look at some issues in the aviation community,'' Boone said.
Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon today declined comment on the
Cody memo.
Reality Check
Cody's memo contrasts with a steady stream of
contradictory, confusing and optimistic NATO and Pentagon
statements in April and May about to the Apache's combat status
and when they would be used.
NATO military spokesman German Air Force Col. Conrad
Freytag, for example, told reporters on April 26, as the Apaches
were arriving in Albania, they would see combat ''very soon.''
NATO and U.S. officials said repeatedly the choppers would be
used when alliance Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wes Clark said
they were ready for combat.
No official, however, indicated how far from ready the
chopper force was.
Cody speaks with special authority because he planned and
executed the Army's successful 1991 Apache strikes against Iraq
in the Persian Gulf War.
Survival Equipment
Significantly, the Apache's current aircraft survival
equipment, including the San Jose, California-based Litton
Industries Inc. Applied Technology APR-39 radar warning receiver,
''is not reliable enough and in some cases not effective,'' Cody
wrote.
NATO and U.S. officials said repeatedly in April and May
that, although the Apaches might face a formidable array of Serb
air defense missile, including heat-seeking shoulder-fired
missiles, the helicopters had adequate protection.
Cody's memo outlined serious problems with the Apaches'
self-defense capability.
''The pilots have lost confidence in the APR 39, the ALQ-136
radar jammer and are not sure of the ALQ-144 infrared jammer true
capabilities,'' Cody wrote. The ALQ-136 is made by the Clifton,
New Jersey avionics division of ITT Industries Inc. The AlQ-144
missile countermeasures system is made by Lockheed Martin's
Nashua, New Hampshire Sanders unit.
The APR 36 had problems during all the units 16 mission
rehearsals, 'resulting in the pilots ignoring the system
altogether,'' Cody wrote.
The ALQ-136 wasn't designed to counter the types of SA-6
and SA-3 missile radars the Serbs used, such as the Flat Face,
Straight Flush and Flap Wheel radars, Cody wrote.
''The pilots were given no supporting data as to the
effectiveness of the jammers to the threat missiles and radars in
the area of operations,'' Cody wrote.
Best Trained Unit
Army officials in Washington said the Task Force Hawk crews
were the best trained in the service for the mission.
''They just finished training at (Germany), one of the major
training centers, in an all-black out, night operations and are
probably the best trained Apache unit in the Army right now to go
in on this mission,'' Army Col. Mike Hackerson, an Apache expert
told reporters during an April 30 briefing.
The Apaches and crew were from squadrons of the 11th
Aviation Regiment, Illesheim, Germany.
Two of the 24 Apaches crashed during night training
missions within two weeks of Task Force Hawk arriving at Tirana
with its full complement of troops and supporting equipment in
mid-April
Cody's memo doesn't address the crashes, one of which killed
two aviators, but makes clear the unit upon arriving in Albania
was unprepared for night combat missions wearing specialized
goggles -- a key Apache capability.
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