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| Caucasus |
| Bad Guys shoot down helicopter in Chechnya, 74 dead... |
| 2002-08-19 |
| A Russian military helicopter loaded with troops crashed in Chechnya on Monday, killing at least 74 people. The Mi-26 helicopter went down near the Russian military headquarters at Khankala, near the Chechen capital Grozny. Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported that at least 80 soldiers were killed. Interfax later adjusted its toll to 74, saying 106 servicemen were aboard the helicopter and 32 survived. Cheeze...! The head of the Defense Ministry press office, Nikolai Deryabin, told ORT state television that the pilot had requested permission to perform an emergency landing because an engine was on fire. He said 13 or 14 servicemen were hospitalized. The military headquarters later said that fire and smoke from the crash hampered efforts to determine the full number of casualties. Interfax said the helicopter was shot down by rebels. The Russers had better come up with better commanders in Chechnya than they have. I hope they still have a few Lebeds left. They were still running a draftee army, last time I looked, and draftees are historically a poor way to deal with guerrillas. They're trying to use MVD troops and regular line troops, when they should be using SpetsNaz and airborne troops — which are (used to be) the cream of their crop. If they don't wipe out the nasties in Chechnya root and branch it's going to be a trouble spot for the next fifty or a hundred years. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #4 Unless things have changed considerably since I knew something about the subject, the Russian army is made up of conscripts snagged for two years, most of them 18-year-olds. They rotate new kids in every six months. Senior NCOs are professionals but are underpaid and under-rated, and junior NCOs are bumped up from the draftee ranks. Officers seemed to split between very good and very bad - a large number of time servers and a smaller number of very competent professionals. I believe that was a function of the Soviet system. Line units performance in Afghanistan fighting the same kind of war was pretty much indifferent; it was my impression that the airborne troops were the actual fighting edge. Their technology wasn't all that great, but the real problem lay with the bloated staff structure and the fact that the kids in the line units weren't adequately trained and motivated. That's the same weakness most draftee armies have. The Russers get around that, somewhat, by picking the best of the draftees for the airborne units, strategic rocket forces, and other positions that call for above-average smarts. That leaves the average for the artillery and tank corps, and the below average for the infantry. That doesn't make for good infantry. Professional armies get around that by being selective - they don't take the below-average in the first place. I agree that the Russians and Indians are probably the natural American allies in the 21st century, assuming both countries can avoid falling apart for different reasons. I think it's something that'll grow naturally - keep in mind that 10 years ago the Russians and we were still eying each other suspiciously and occasionally still showing our fangs. And the Indos were busy being "neutrals" while implementing some gawd-awful version of socialism, and didn't really like us at all. |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-08-19 20:54:09 |
| #3 In response to Mr. White. I saw a MI-26 in Somalia and can best describe it as a C-130 with rotor blades. |
| Posted by: JP5 2002-08-19 19:30:29 |
| #2 Actually thermal imaging technology would help the Russians discover troop concentrations. If Bush would dump Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as so-called "allies", in favor of Russia and India, then shared technology and manpower would yield a cost-effective victory over the terrorists. No more oil-patch Presidents, please! |
| Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God 2002-08-19 18:21:18 |
| #1 104 servicemen and crew in a single helicopter? Talk about being a sardine. That sucker must be the size of a DC-9. Regards, |
| Posted by: Steve White 2002-08-19 12:24:30 |