Inside the Apache Attack Helicopter
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Rockstar!
I spent yesterday morning with the helo wing of the 101st Airborne Division out of Clarksville, TN. The unit is set up in the edge of Bagram Airfield in a series of hangars and large open tents called clamshells.
The guys I was with are helicopter mechanics, pilots and test-pilots who make sure that the birds are ready to fly and fully operational. I was blessed with the opportunity to sit in an Apache cockpit, learn the weapons systems and get a quick lesson on how to fly the thing.
After that, we headed to a zillion-dollar Apache flight simulator where I once more strapped in to the cockpit and got an hour-long lesson in flying and shooting insurgents. The Apache is an amazing weapon of destruction. Last month Popular Mechanics listed it as one of the six most lethal aircraft in history. The chopper is mounted with a laser guided missile system, equipped to shoot Hellfire missiles, as well as an assortment of other heavy, deadly munitions.
The most remarkable aspect of this beast however, is the MTADS (Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight) system. The Apache is a two seater and the guy in front does the shooting. He wears a helmet that connects him to the powerful 30 Cal machine gun, loaded just under the Apache’s nose. All he has to do is turn his head and the machine gun goes wherever he looks. “It’s literally point and shoot,” says CWS Bob Braswell, who has flown the Apache I combat over both Iraq and Afghanistan. When I asked him what kind of lethality the gun dealt out he said simply, “Hamburger. It turns people into hamburger meat.”
He showed me some videos, taken from the night-vision camera mounted on the Apache. I could clearly make out insurgents engaging U.S. ground forces in a village not far from here. The grunts called in air support and when the Apache’s started shooting that 30 Cal, the insurgents bodies were blown to pieces in perfect, digital detail.
“That could be his arm,” says Braswell, pointing to a glowing chunk of insurgent lying near some bushes. “Then again, it could be his ass. There’s really no way to tell once this gun goes to work.”