Anyone have scoop on fold out seats on the side of a AH1 for recon insertion? Snake, you read?
Never heard of or saw in pictures of such a set-up
No, there are no seats on the cobra for insertion of SpecOps.
Here is how the story goes (no clue if it actually happened or not).
In Afghanistan, some SpecOps guys were chasing some terrorists who were a ridge line or mountain away from them. The SpecOps were being supported by a USMC AH-1W Cobra. The bad guys were getting away and the Operators were losing site of them. One of the Operators got the idea to have the Cobra give them a ride up/over the ridgeline. They did this by lowering the ammo access doors on either side of the nose of the Cobra and sitting on them for the ride. They rode over to where the bad guys were and engaged and killed them.
Two problems I see with it.
- Why not just have the Cobra chase the bad guys down and wax then with the 20mm chaingun and/or rockets/hellfire/TOW?
- I don’t think the ammo access doors would support the weight of a couple of guys sitting on them as the helo flew around, also there is nothing for them to hold onto and keep from falling off.
You be the judge, I think it is just a new military myth from the front.
Someone else may know more.
Not sure about current applications, but I know that the ammo bay doors have been used to extract downed crewmen during Vietnam. There were several instances where a cobra was downed and their wingman landed, had the downed crew remove the magazines for the minigun and chunker, and then climbed on the open doors for a safe, albeit hairy ride home. I don’t see why that couldnt’ be done today as well.
Right now I’ve got a shot of a Longbow Apache with two Delta operators strapped to the outside of it as my computer wallpaper. Also, there was a dramatic rescue conducted by an Apache aircrew in Iraq last October where the mission commander strapped himself and a downed Kiowa pilot (the more severely wounded KW pilot was put in the front seat) to the outside of his Apache for the short ride to Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad. I’m sure the Marines have also included some “self-extraction” capability in their Cobras, so it is possible, but there are no specialized “troop seats”
Yeah, no troop seats that I’ve ever seen on our birds, but I do believe that the pilots would brief before their missions as to means of an emergency extraction if one of the ships went down. So, I’m sure it is always a consideration in emergency situations, but Cobras don’t get used like taxis like the Little Birds do. The operators might get a little toasty if they had to start firing rockets all of a sudden [;)]. As to the strength of the ammo bay doors, I think they’d be fine for supporting one or two guys in flight. On the deck, it supports two or three maintainers all the time[:)] Note, however, that the only thing keeping that door horizontal to the deck are two steel cables at each corner. I have seen a maintainer jump (hard) from the cockpit, and snap one cable off, bending the door when he landed on it. He was an airframes mechanic, so guess who got his ****** chewed AND had to fix it, heh. But still, if you were flying anything other than slow and straight, I think you’d have a hard time trying to keep yourself on there.
Thanks for the word From the people in the know! But ya gotta admit, It´d make an interesting diorama…
Hey Cobra don’t suppose you’d like to share that pic of the Apache with the Delta guys hanging off would ya??
Dan
Dan,
It is currently on my jumpdrive. I’ll get it online in a bit, but I definitely plan on sharing it!
That story about the Cobra medevacs in Vietnam is true tale of american hero’s. I have spoken with a soldier who was there when it happened. If I get a chance I will look on my pc for the story. I have some pictures of the pilot as well. It is a testament to how far we go to save our wounded.