*Warning Graphic* 2 Apaches Kill A Platoon of Taliban

[Climber]

If this were 1942 we would have destroyed the whole village. Yes, I know that women and children would have been killed. But the enemy has to know its been beat. I mean there is lots of copper, tin, gold, silver, palladium, baridium, cobalt , zinz , coal. Need to make it safe for Rio Tento and all the other companys to mine. I mean really its been 10+ years now... how long does this take???.....got VX gas??

Stop trolling dude

[SBL]

Damn, that was brutal.

[necrofear]

where can i watch the damn video....

[Pete031]

Live LEak has it under the same name...

[James]

How can the pilots know from that distance if the men with AKs are Talibs or Haqqanis and not just village security men?

Shooting at an American patrol is a clue.

[C.Puffs]

But you still can put,as I said a minigun pod instead of the Hellfires, at least they should. I am not expert on this stuff, but it is common sense.

The only way to aim the minigun pod would be by turning the aircraft, i.e. strafing. Not the most effective use. They'd be better off with some laser guided 2.75" rockets.

[James]

They probably did, but there was also tons of civilians on the ground, animals, children, etc, and most villagers own weapons, so how can you tell which guy is a Talib and which guy is a local peasant with a rifle? They also dropped hellfires and 30mm right next to the tents, where shrapnel can easily fly and kill civilians. I'm not trying to monday morning quarterback here (US army pilots are highly trained professionals), but these are obvious red flags that I saw just from this video. You know that Human rights watch and other groups will have a field day with a video like this, and they dont give 2 sh-ts about the Army side of the story.

Maybe someone who has worked with air support in their deployment can comment here.

my biggest gripe after seeing this is watching the pilots use a 60k hellfire on 1 man. This missile was designed for taking out large, expensive tanks, not illiterate Talib a-holes. This is why we are going to be in debt for a long, long time.

As mentioned earlier, Apaches don't fly around and randomly engage armed people. There was an American patrol on the ground that had been engaged. If you hear the term "Troops in Contact" this means friendly troops are getting shot at. When you hear "can you see my splash?" It means that someone was marking the target area with a laser.

I've enjoyed support on the ground from Apaches a couple of times. I watched this video, and it appeared to me that the aircrew went to great length to avoid the tents. The hits that were closest were in a draw, so while anyone in the tent probably had bleeding ears, I don't think shrapnel would hit them. At one point I believe they even identified women and children on the ground.

I agree that using a Hellfire one one person is an expensive way to fight a war, but if I was an airman I wouldn't leave friendlies in contact on the ground unless I was out of ordnance or fuel.

[James]

Aren't miniguns 7.62 mm? What's that round going to be behaving like when the apache is engaging targets at a kilometer or more away from its target? To me, at those ranges, it makes more sense to be firing larger rounds...

Correct, the mini gun doesn't have the range of a 30mm.

[WolverineBlue]

Quite intense, to say the least. The FLIR videos are always the most graphic ones from the past decade.

[Pete031]

my biggest gripe after seeing this is watching the pilots use a 60k hellfire on 1 man. This missile was designed for taking out large, expensive tanks, not illiterate Talib a-holes. This is why we are going to be in debt for a long, long time.

How much is a Coalition Soldiers life worth? These guys were in heavy contact at the beginning of the video. These Apache pilots are going to use everything they have to help out.

[BlackFlag]

I agree that using a Hellfire one one person is an expensive way to fight a war, but if I was an airman I wouldn't leave friendlies in contact on the ground unless I was out of ordnance or fuel.

Well said.

[Carib]

RIP Rest In Pieces. Really though this war needs to end.

[JUNKHO]

I didn't realize there were so many military experts and political advisors at militaryphotos.net.

BTW to our fellows with higher morals then those dirty pilots: Afghan civilians do not live in the mountains, they live in valleys.

You did not mean "dirty pilots" literally....right?

[Bacon]

Eurowussies are strong in this thread.

[Gonzo__]

first video in thread no longer working...

this one does thought