Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

OPERATIONS BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE PERSIAN GULF
Figure 77. Helicopter kill in Grenada. The 1983 American invasion of
Grenada was not much of a war due to the overwhelming US military
superiority. Nevertheless, antiaircraft guns shot down four Army helicopters,
again demonstrating their vulnerability to ground fire. (Reprinted
from http://www.2arts.net/…/grenada_thumbs_downed_helicoper.htm.)
claims from their propaganda, a number of aircraft have gone
down in anti-guerrilla operations in Angola, Chad, Nicaragua,
and the Sudan. Whether they were victims of SAMs, small arms,
operational problems, or propaganda remains to be determined.
In any case, the acquisition of shoulder-launched SAMs gives
the guerrillas a potent antiaircraft weapon. 45
The man-portable SAM has had an impact on air warfare.
Airmen—Americans in Vietnam and Soviets in Afghanistan—
quickly found countermeasures to the first-generation SA-7
and Redeye missiles. Both missiles are limited by lack of electronic
identification capability and three performance factors:
they are strictly tail-chase (revenge) weapons, susceptible to
decoy flares, and are restricted in maneuverability. The secondgeneration
Stinger is a different story. It is a foot longer than
the four-foot Redeye and weighs an additional 16 pounds.
More importantly, the Stinger has improved its performance in
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