Iraq Helicopter Attacks Take Aim at Major U.S. Asset (Update1)
By Ken Fireman
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The spike in successful attacks on U.S. helicopters in Iraq creates a growing risk for a major component of American military operations just as a new campaign to quell insurgent violence in Baghdad is beginning.
The downing of five helicopters in the past three weeks shows that Iraqi insurgents are becoming more adept at attacking these aircraft, which the military relies on for a variety of critical functions.
``The helicopter force is central to our form of warfare,'' said retired Army General Barry McCaffrey, a veteran of combat in 1991 against Iraq. ``It is a central pillar for our operations. To the extent that these insurgents are targeting our helicopters, we'll have to respond to it.''
U.S. military officials are studying the downings to determine whether they reflect a statistical anomaly, or ``some new kind of tactics and techniques that we need to adjust to,'' said General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
One thing that is clear, Pace said at a Feb. 2 news conference, is that ground fire ``has been more effective against our helicopters in the past couple of weeks.''
Cause Studied
The most recent downing occurred on Feb. 7 when a CH-46 helicopter crashed about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing all seven crewmen and passengers. While a final determination about the cause hasn't been made, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, Major General William Caldwell, told CNN late yesterday it probably resulted from a malfunction.
Four other helicopters went down between Jan. 20 and Feb. 2, killing a total of 21 people. All were shot down, Pace said. The five downings in less than three weeks were the most in a concentrated period since January 2004, when five helicopters went down, according to a survey by Washington's Brookings Institution.
``They're obviously doing something different,'' Caldwell told CNN, referring to Iraqi insurgents.
American forces use helicopters in Iraq for troop movement, reconnaissance, support of embattled ground forces, evacuation of the wounded and delivery of ammunition and equipment, said McCaffrey, who commanded an infantry division during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
New Need
Helicopters will loom large as U.S. forces increase their pace of operations in a new campaign to suppress insurgents and sectarian militias, said Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. The vulnerability of ground vehicles to roadside bombs makes helicopters especially useful as an alternative means of transporting troops, he said.
``This is a workhorse today for every aspect of warfare and mobility,'' Cordesman said. ``It almost doesn't matter whether it's in Baghdad or a rural area. If you didn't have tactical air supremacy, it would be far more difficult.''
The U.S. is likely to be providing air support for Iraqi forces even after most American ground troops leave, because the Iraqis have little air capability of their own.
Afghanistan Lesson
The importance of maintaining that supremacy through helicopters is illustrated by the experience of Soviet military forces that fought throughout the 1980s to suppress an insurgency in Afghanistan.
The turning point in that war was the U.S. decision to arm the insurgents with shoulder-fired, anti-helicopter Stinger missiles in 1986, said Milt Bearden, who as CIA station chief in Pakistan coordinated aid to the rebels.
``The Soviets owned the skies until 1986,'' Bearden said in an interview. ``The Afghan resistance, after five years of war, was becoming fatalistic and waiting to get martyred.''
On the first day the insurgents used their Stingers in action, three Soviet helicopters were shot down outside of Jalalabad, Bearden said.
``The mood in the resistance turned on a dime,'' he said. ``You felt that if you had a guy with a Stinger with you, you had a talisman.'' As helicopter losses mounted, Soviet morale plummeted, and by early 1989 all forces had been withdrawn.
Weapon Types
Such an outcome is unlikely in Iraq, McCaffrey said, in part because it is unclear that insurgents have obtained sophisticated anti-helicopter missiles. Pace told a Senate committee on Feb. 6 that small-arms fire was responsible for the recent shoot-downs.
If Iraqi insurgents have obtained weaponry such as the Russian-made, heat-seeking SA-18 missile, it would increase the risk to American forces, McCaffrey said. It would also raise tensions between the U.S. and Iran, the most likely source of such equipment, he said.
Helicopters can be brought down by rocket-propelled grenades, large-caliber machine guns or even heavily concentrated fire from assault rifles, McCaffrey and Cordesman said.
Counter-measures include flying more nighttime missions, using unmanned aircraft and pairing more vulnerable transport helicopters with Apache attack helicopters to suppress ground fire.
Deaths, Helicopters
According to the Brookings survey, 57 U.S. helicopters had been downed in Iraq through Feb. 4, resulting in 172 deaths, or about 5.5 percent of total American deaths since the conflict began in March 2003.
Cordesman noted in a paper released yesterday that this loss rate was far lower than the U.S. suffered in the Vietnam War, during which about 5,000 helicopters went down.
Still, he said, the recent downings indicate that U.S. forces face an adaptable enemy that has learned to ``swarm'' around targets such as helicopters with concentrated ground fire.
And Cordesman said the ultimate target of the helicopter attacks may be much farther afield.
``The more media attention the insurgents can get through such attacks, the more likely it is that U.S. domestic politics will increase pressure for withdrawal from Iraq or place limits on the use of U.S. forces,'' he wrote.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Fireman in Washington at kfireman1@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: February 9, 2007 12:02 EST |
