You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
The Grand Turk
Russian marine killed in pilot rescue bid
2015-11-25
Culled from a much larger, rambling BBC post.
A Russian marine has been killed on a helicopter mission to rescue the crew of a jet downed by Turkey near the Syrian border on Tuesday. He died when his helicopter came under fire from rebels in northern Syria, where the plane crashed.

Rebel fire from the ground killed one of the jet's two crew members after they ejected.

Russian defence official Lt-Gen Sergey Rudskoy said the rest of the rescue team, which were using two Mi-8 helicopters, had been safely evacuated from the area to Russia's Humaymim air base near Latakia in Syria.

"During the operation, one of the helicopters came under small-arms fire, was damaged and made an emergency landing on neutral territory," he said. "One naval infantryman serving under contract was killed."

One of the helicopters was destroyed on the ground by "mortar fire" after making an emergency landing, the Russian general said.

Syrian rebels say they blew up the helicopter shortly after it landed with an anti-tank missile, releasing footage of the attack.

The fate of the Russian jet's other crew member remains unknown.
Posted by:Steve White

#6  Why 8s and not 24s? or does the result answer that question?

8s are issued to Russian Naval Infantry. MI-24s are not.

And as I said in earlier comments, it's all about Russian naval doctrine. Those guys are there for a fleet mission, so I suspect the SAR was an ad hoc mission, one transport bird, and one gunship.
Posted by: badanov   2015-11-25 21:42  

#5  Is the Free Syrian Army the local Muslim Brotherhood affiliate?
Posted by: trailing wife   2015-11-25 21:21  

#4  Also, (rattles the shaker a bit) that video was Free Syria Army, what I have been calling Team Not-Assad as opposed to ISJV, both of which play against Team Assad, the FSA the ones who Team WTF arms and trains?

Wait a second, gonna go buy a program.

Also have a splinter in the mind (puts salt away, starts squeezing lemon wedges close to eyes) - say, Russia destroys number of oil trucks, incursions had been happening but now air zone is enforced, whose oil trucks did Team WTF (usa et al) as to not offend Turkey?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2015-11-25 11:23  

#3  Why 8s and not 24s? or does the result answer that question?

(sets salt shaker next to mouse)
I see reports that one pilot was rescued; if one was captured and the other rescued, and one chopper (eat it modern man) was downed and only (not for the family) killed, would that not be called successful?

And the footage of blowing the wreckage with a TOW (looks at salt shaker) be a shot across the bow of sorts?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2015-11-25 11:08  

#2  Agreed, And CSAR is always problematic.
Posted by: Pappy   2015-11-25 11:01  

#1  Looks like the Russians are on the steep end of the learning curve for SAR OPS. OTOH, at least they appear to have a SAR SOP now.
Posted by: Nguard   2015-11-25 02:31  

00:00