In the last 8 days I counted no less than 5 cases of lead poisoning on folks emplacing IEDs.

I have an older brother that is cuurently serving with the 101st flying AH-64’s. He’s is on his third tour with the first two in Iraq and his third will be in Afghanistan. Ive talked to him extensivly(Sp) about the counter measures that are used to detect and DEFEAT such threats as MANPADS and the like. So how come when I watch all of these vids of Apache’s, CH-46s, Mi-6, Mi-24s, and other Helo’s getting blotted from the sky by MANPADS I NEVER see ANY sort of countermeasures being deployed. No flares, no bundles of chaff…nothing.
So i ask you…WTF?

If you watch the released video on the news, it is obvious that it was a guided MANPAD missle that shot down the AH-64.

“Aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) consists of Litton AN/APR-39 passive RWR, Sanders AN/ALQ-144 IR jammer, Raytheon AN/AVR-2 laser warning receiver, ITT AN/ALQ-136 radar jammer and chaff dispensers and Lockheed Martin AN/APR-48A radar frequency interferometer. Sanders AN/ALQ-212 Advanced Threat Infra-Red Countermeasures (ATIRCM) system and ITT AN/ALQ-211 suite of integrated RF countermeasures (SIRFC) system currently under development. ATIRCM combines next-generation directable IRCM system with Sanders AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System (CMWS); SIRFC currently at EMD stage, with contractor tests on Apache Longbow undertaken in latter half of 1999, followed by operational test and evaluation from early 2000; production decision due to be taken in mid-2000. Elisra began flight test of passive airborne warning system in second half of 1999 and Israel plans to install this on its AH-64 fleet.”

Most notible is the Common Missile Warning System. This system is designed to detect, classify, and react to various threats to the A/C. What it’s suppossed to do is to “see” the threat and then “react” by throwing out all sorts of active and passive countermeasures. IR jamming, RF jamming, IR Flares, CHAFF, you name it. When I asked the Brother why havent these systems been working he flat out told me that he didnt know. I asked him if there were some way to turn the system off before an OP and he told me no. They cant turn the system off due to the intergration with other primary systems. Here is the link to what all the CMWS is upposed to cover:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/systems/siircm.htm

So WTF is going on here. The Longbow was designed to operate on a modern battlefield with all sorts of threats INCLUDING MANPADS….Yes, I know the Apache was designed to kill tanks but it can also be used in a CAS role to which it also excels. Cant wait to hear more from ya Pat. Semper Fi