Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Night of <strong>the</strong> Flying Hooligans
Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, <strong>the</strong> aircraft were regularly overloaded when flying in Afghanistan’s hot,
high <strong>and</strong> rarefied atmosphere. 295
Transport was but one string to <strong>the</strong>ir bow. The Hips were used for route reconnaissance,
target identification, marking, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> carriage of forward air controllers, border patrols
for monitoring Mujahideen infiltration from neighbouring Pakistan <strong>and</strong> Iran, <strong>and</strong> casualty
evacuation. 296 The latter was especially important during <strong>the</strong> war. Dr Mark Galeotti, an
expert on <strong>the</strong> Soviet <strong>and</strong> Russian armed forces at Keele University, United Kingdom,
states that “most Soviet soldiers would point to casualty evacuation as being <strong>the</strong> most
important element in <strong>the</strong> air operations. It had a major effect on morale”.
The aircraft could also be used as an offensive platform for dropping air-delivered
l<strong>and</strong>mines 297 , as a comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> control platform or radio-relay between comm<strong>and</strong> posts
on <strong>the</strong> ground, or comm<strong>and</strong> posts <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r aircraft. 298
In <strong>the</strong>ir offensive role, <strong>the</strong> Hips
were an integral part of <strong>the</strong> desant concept. This was a force of Hips carrying airborne
troops <strong>and</strong> escorted by Mi-24V (“Hinds”) which would l<strong>and</strong> near <strong>the</strong>ir objective <strong>and</strong> offload
airborne troops which would march to contact with <strong>the</strong> enemy <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>n withdraw
by helicopter after <strong>the</strong> engagement. The desant gave <strong>the</strong> Soviet Army <strong>the</strong> ability to rapidly
react to Mujahideen actions on <strong>the</strong> ground. Desant packages could sometime number
up to sixty aircraft, along with accompanying fixed-wing fighter-bomber <strong>and</strong> helicopter
gunship units depending on <strong>the</strong> size of <strong>the</strong> force being airlifted.
Hind helicopters
The Mi-24Vs which escorted <strong>the</strong> desants became <strong>the</strong> signature aircraft of <strong>the</strong> conflict.
With its insect-like shape <strong>and</strong> tweeting main rotor, <strong>the</strong> aircraft became a regular star on
<strong>the</strong> world’s television screens as <strong>the</strong> UH-1 Huey had been during <strong>the</strong> Vietnam War. At <strong>the</strong>
start of <strong>the</strong> conflict, Hind crews took <strong>the</strong>ir machines down into <strong>the</strong> valleys to press home
attacks on <strong>the</strong> Mujahideen, but as <strong>the</strong> rebel’s air defences improved with <strong>the</strong> addition
of MANPADS <strong>and</strong> captured ZSU-23-4 Shikla self-propelled air-defence guns <strong>the</strong> Hind
crews took <strong>the</strong>ir aircraft higher to avoid <strong>the</strong> danger below. This was no easy task. The
atmosphere, or lack of, in Afghanistan <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> high summer temperatures limited <strong>the</strong>
quantity of armament that <strong>the</strong> Hinds could carry. 299
Missions for <strong>the</strong> gunships included <strong>the</strong> notorious “M<strong>and</strong>atory Matsurov”. Matsurov was
a hero of <strong>the</strong> Great Patriotic War, a young soldier who threw himself across a German
machinegun emplacement so that his comrades could advance. The Hinds’ heroic
contribution saw <strong>the</strong>m escorting transport aircraft into <strong>and</strong> out of Afghan airfields to act
as bait for MANPADS <strong>and</strong> to deploy Infra-Red Counter Measures (IRCMs) <strong>and</strong> gunfire to
suppress <strong>and</strong> destroy <strong>the</strong> rebels’ attack. If all else failed, <strong>the</strong> Hind crews were to fly <strong>the</strong>ir
machines towards <strong>the</strong> missile to sacrifice <strong>the</strong>mselves for <strong>the</strong> larger aircraft. Tellingly, for
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<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror”