Ready....Aim....FFFFFFFFFFIRE!

[hey_moe]

This video is kinda of ruff. >>>> Click here:http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=f213b73d647e <o></o>

[SSI01]

And all without hurting the innocent pack animals . . .

[TARPSBird]

The donkeys were probably thinking, "You guys get the hell away from me so I'm not collateral damage when the helo opens fire!"

[n4gix]

That had to have been a very expensive sortie...

[Naismith]

How much do Hellfires cost?

[SixGhost]

Around 70k $ each, not counting maintenance...:isadizzy:

[n4gix]

That's my point. The one Apache exhausted their machine gun ammo, then proceeded to (over)kill single targets with a hellfire missle...

...as I said, very expensive sortie.

[TeaSea]

Not if you're the Infantry Platoon they were in support of. Prosthetic's cost in excess of 70K a piece. Long term care for disable veteran infantryman will buy you that Apache. Hellfires are cheap by comparison. Remember you're just seeing the air component of a running fight. Go back and listen to the radio traffic, and remember you're only listening to two nets.

This is not a dig at Hey_Moe for posting because this stuff is out there, but I have conflicted feelings about this type of video. We call it "War Porn". On the one hand, I think it's important for people to understand what we're asking our troops to do on the battlefield. But on the other hand, most folks will view this video as some sort of sick entertainment and will have no context upon which to hang what they're seeing. Also, there's a certain amount of intelligence value (very little frankly, but it's there).

In any case, having been under fire and had air support behind me I can assure you that I didn't give a damn what the "fracking" missiles cost.

[Crusader]

A job extremely well done . It makes very proud of our military . I've dodged and tried to out run my share of 140 mm rockets and I personally would not care if they dropped a dozen 2000 pounders on just two or three VC if it saved a GI's life (and especially my a--!)

Rich

[TeaSea]

Let me add that I didn't mean to come across so sanctimoneous. Bill is correct to point out the cost. But remember one of the problems here is that you're seeing information with no context. Think about it, the force spends most of its time in waiting. When you have bona ride targets and force in contact, do you really think you're going to go back to base with stuff still on the pods?

The force is there to engage legitimate targets in support of a tactical objective. They'd throw rocks at these guys if they could.

[Naismith]

I too have reservations about this type of video. One positive I take away from it was the demonstrable care they took to avoid injuring the children running about. In my mind puts to rest the allegations of the "gung ho" US military.