Serious question, /k/:
We used UH-1s by the thousand to get around lush foliage and rough terrain in Vietnam, why would we not use them to the same degree in Afghanistan/Iraq/next sandbox adventure in order to prevent soldiers from getting blown up in their vehicles?
I mean, surely it wouldn't eliminate IED deaths, as there would still be anti-personnel mines and such. But if I'm not mistaken, IEDs were one of the number one causes of death in A-stan and Iraq, right?
Surely there must have been more than enough Hueys and Hawks to go around in the mideast at the time to significantly reduce the amount of vehicle IED deaths, right? And if not, there should have been enough time and money to procure them, no?
I might be wrong on some of these points, but this has been rattling around my head for a few days. Any milfags are invited to share your views/answers
Shameless self-bump
bump
idk the answer but I am curious.
a humvee/mrap has more loiter time than a chopper, and say you need to get out and search, much easier to do so in a truck.
plus the extra logistics would be a nightmare.
however, could we use like, small hovercraft-mrap things?
modern hovercrafts can roll over mines and shit no problem, and the civilian market already has some small recreational ones.
could we military-ify them?
>>29565291
Thanks. I always wondered how driving down desert roads known for sandnigger activity was encouraged for 13ish years
>>29565326
That would be cool. But if you had enough choppers on stand-by (like in Nam), it wouldn't be a such a problem due to high procurement, right?. I would love to see the hovercraft idea militarized, but what's to stop an insurgent from manually detonating the bomb instead? I don't know if it would solve the problem to any noticeable degree.
>>29565385
what I'm saying is, if hovercrafts can roll over mines then they can roll over an ied to some degree (maybe not like, 10 155mm HE shells)
and procurement wouldn't really be the issue, as more as keeping them working.
sand does not bode well with jet engines, and flying as low as they would have to for patrols, we would tear up engines like all hell.
>>29565326
>modern hovercrafts can roll over mines and shit no problem
A lot of IEDs are triggered remotely rather than by pressure
>>29565415
Ah I see. Forgot about how choppers worked lol. Kind of unsettling that the well-being of the chopper would be prioritized over the soldiers, but I can understand why.
In hindsight, what else do you think could have been done to transport soldiers more safely innadesert?
Not enough soldiers. Not enough resources. Not enough money.
>>29565466
unfortunately it was mostly urban warfare so there's not too much that can be done.
as for moving from like, FOB to FOB, a somewhat armored vehicle that could go at high speed off road would be great, just roll straight through everything.
think a cross between a humvee and a sandrail
>>29565547
why is it so big? Or is he just small?
>>29565547
pretty much, yeah.
>>29565199
>IED balloons
>>29565569
It's meant for dudes with fuckhueg armors.
>>29565569
I think it was designed for the guy in the Spartan suit to sit in and drive, so they overbuilt it to look scaled for that.
Take the game version.
>>29565586
>this just in: suspicious orders of large amounts of balloons to the middle east have been confirmed as being used in IEDs
>>29565586
>>29565622
That would be pretty interesting
>>29565466
There are also some things you just can't move in a helicopter. For example, earthmovers to build the walls that will keep the SVBIEDs out of your FOB.
>>29565613
>Warthog
>Insert that one Whitney Houston song here
You're gonna have to walk around at some point
>>29565547
Is that a puma?
>>29565199
I was an Aviation Mechanic and spent several months in Afghanistan. Air craft require a significantly larger amount of maintenance per flight hour than ground vehicles need per hour of active use. So using aircraft in place of all of the Humvees and HMMVs in a deployment would be exceptionally expensive. Literally every aspect imaginable would be more costly with an indeterminate amount of improvement of what you're suggesting.
Not to mention it's hard to enact the "winning the hearts and minds" of the locals when you're in the air the entire time. Part of the reason the US did ground patrols in Iraq/Afghanistan was to get out and interact with the local populace and put a human face on the war effort. It helped to a certain degree decrease attacks and we got more information and warnings about future ambushes and attacks from the locals as a result.
The majority of helo drops in Vietnam happened in sparsely populated regions of the country. Most convoys in Iraq were in highly populated urban environments. (not so much in Afghanistan but still enough to be relevant). That limits the number of areas where aircraft could land to drop off and pick up troops. There's also a greater chance of taking fire while hovering during offload/onload. While HMMVs and Humvees are also at risk to fire during patrols, aircraft are far less armored and more susceptible to damage from small arms fire and worse.
tl;dr Vietnam was a completely different environment from Iraq/Afghanistan and therefore tactics are not wholly transferable from one to the other
I can imagine it now, swarms of helicopters flying over Baghdad.
Civilians haven't slept at all, flight of the bumblebee has been playing non-stop for 10 years.
Russian RPGs are being shipped in by the truckload. Helicopters dropping like passenger pigeons.
Giant IED cannons filled with Pellets that blow plum-sized grape shot into the sky.
Maintenance nightmare.
US leaves and ISIS now has a sizeable airforce.
Praise Allah is blared all over the middle east.
>>29566150
why hasn't an aps been developed for helis?
>>29566150
>shooting down chopper with rpg
>rpg
ehehehe
>>29566080
neat, thanks for all the info.
>>29566150
>2017
>all modern helicopters are replaced by vintage Vietnam era Hueys and Vipers
>modern battle gear and dress are replaced by OD combat fatigues and ancient flack jackets
>M16a1 and the M1911 become standard issue again
>all Hueys come equipped with speakers blaring "flight of the valkeries" 24-7, along with surfboards for the flight crew
>whut.jpg
>begin extensive usage of agent Orange and napalm, despite being in a fucking desert
>mfw we're only allowed to listen to music and news reports from the late 60's
>mfw we succeed where the Soviets failed
>>29566197
No problem. Happy to answer questions when they pertain to my limited field of military experience. Have some pics.
>>29566283
>>29566299
>>29566280
Can't go wrong with the classics
>>29566312
>>29566280
I wish this was real on so many levels.
>>29566283
what was your favorite aircraft that you dealt with?
>>29566326
those things are still used?
>>29566334
>what was your favorite aircraft that you dealt with?
Tough choice. CH-53 I guess.
>>29566337
Marine Corps likes to hold onto the old toys we have because we rarely get new ones. And if it ain't broke don't fix it.
>>29566374
CH53s are fucking cool, I'd love for the army to adopt them.
as much as I love the chinook, the ch53 is too good to not adopt.
>>29566334
This one. It was nice to know it had 3 engines on it in case shit went side ways you had more backups keeping you in the air.
>>29566392
Yeah, different tools for different jobs. The CH-53 was a smoother ride than the Osprey. First time we took a 45degree turn in an Osprey I thought we were going down. Also Osprey leak more hydraulic fluid. So it's on everything on the inside.
The joke was, "If a CH-53 starts leaking worry, if an Osprey stops leaking, worry."
M1A with bayonet, 1911 with silver hollowpoints, and a bunch of napalm.
>>29566431
FUCK, wrong thread.
I do this too often.
>>29566430
Alright, I got work in 5 hours. Night everyone.
Because choppers in vietnam were a fucking disaster and a huge part of the reason the US lost that war
Air mobility is a meme, the only reason the US slightly makes it work is due to air superiority, the lack of anti-air among their opponents, and the ability of them to bunker down & call for fire support.
>>29566431
>Koranimals are now literally werewolves
Well no, Turkish koranimals are werewolves, Arab koranimals are werecamels.
Werecamels that Spit acid
>>29565547
Looks a little too big to be fully scaled.
>>29566700
.....Someone call up the Asylum, we've got the plot to Dog Soldiers 3 right here.
>>29566062
>>29566374
>>29566392
>>29566395
mfw i know a guy who comes for a fly-by every now and then with a lovely bundeswehr ch-53
>>29565199
They are loud af and make any sort of "surprise" maneuver impossible.
>>29567742
do you think a mrap/humvee is quiet?
shit, for a while the humvee used a 2 stroke diesel and it sounded like a goddamn freight train.
>>29567748
Not defending humvees, those are shit.
Imo the military should conduct quiet ops by having guys march on foot at night carrying only the essential, through preplanned areas with certain designated spots where airplanes will drop them supplies from a high altitude right before they reach it.
Of course this is only meant for remote/inaccessible af areas of Afghanistan.
