A Bell 407 helicopter from the Iraqi army was shot down near Tikrit. The photo you see was published on the facebook profiles of terrorists and taken from the intelligence site IHS Jane. The helicopter should have been shot down the 28 last September. The crew was rescued by a second helicopter flying nearby.
The Iraqis have in service 24 armed Bell 407 helicopters, purchased by the United States in the 2010. According to the loyalist government, this is the second helicopter shot down by the insurgents, but probably the losses could be greater.
The dynamics that led to the downing of the aircraft are ignored. A joint infantry barrage may have been used but perhaps it would be better not to fool: the Islamic State owns hundreds of MANPADS arrow is Stinger) first stolen from Saddam's arsenals and then from those of the regular loyalist army. Finally, without considering the more than a thousand vehicles abandoned by regular troops and obtained by ISIS without a shot being fired: many of these were equipped with additional anti-aircraft weapons.
It is still too early to give the caliphate a complete short-range anti-aircraft defensive capacity, but these are worrying precedents. And the story is full of these episodes. The 407 Bells purchased from Iraq are equipped with a .50 caliber machine guns from 12,7 millimeters, air-to-surface 70 mm rockets and air missiles from Hellfire AGM-114 surface. The helicopters are also equipped with the laser / infrared designator L-3 Wescam MX-15Di.
The Iraqi rotor fleet consists of Mil Mi-28N 'Havoc', Mi-35 'Hind', Aerospatiale SA 342M Gazelle, Bell UH-1H 'Huey', Bell 207, Airbus Helicopters EC635 and Mil Mi-8 / 17 ' Hip '.
(photo: web / US Air Force)
