Army helos can thwart missiles, but remain vulnerable.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: ARMY AVIATION

THE ARMY HAS MADE progress protecting helicopters flying in Iraq from shoulder-fired missiles, but its crews and aircraft routinely are the targets of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

"The primary threat from the enemy that we see over here now is probably small arms, heavy machine gun fire," said Col. Daniel Ball, commander of the Army's 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, speaking to reporters from Baghdad.

The unit, which currently is on its third deployment to Iraq, operates 100 helicopters, and its pilots are targeted by surface-to-air fire at least every other day, Ball said. Although most of the attacks fail to hit the target to keep the enemy off guard, Army aviators frequently change altitudes, speeds and routes. "We have adjusted our tactics and techniques almost on a daily basis since we've been here," said Ball.

Helicopters also are flying nighttime missions as much as possible, because the aircraft are harder to hit in the dark. "It's a lot easier to identify if you're being shot when you're flying at night versus the daytime because of the tracer rounds," he added.

Insurgent weapons used against helicopters have evolved since the early days of the war. In 2003, U.S. helicopters suffered a series of devastating shoulder-fired missile attacks. Much like the humvees that entered the conflict without adequate armor to protect occupants from roadside bombs, most of the Army's aircraft flew into combat without the flare dispensers that are designed to decoy heat-seeking missiles.

The low point was the first week of November 2003 when insurgents shot down a CH-47D Chinook. Sixteen soldiers were killed and 26 were wounded. A few days later, an SA-16 missile took down an AH-60 Black Hawk, which resulted in the deaths of four crewmembers and two passengers.

"It's very unfortunate that we had to lose lives for the program to get kick started," said Maj. Jay Gautreaux, a deputy at the Army's infrared countermeasures program.

By July 2006, all rotary-wing aircraft in Iraq were outfitted with the common missile warning system, Gautreaux said at the Army Aviation Association of America conference in Atlanta. The manufacturer of the device, BAE Systems, ramped its production up from four units per month to 40, he added.

"Soldiers are loving it. They're going on missions, seeing missiles come after them and they're coming back home to talk about it," said Gautreaux, who had just returned from a four-month...