Fly smarter, pilots told (So there! problem taken care of.)

Fly smarter, pilots told
By Charles Aldinger In Washington
November 9, 2003
The Sun-Herald

US military helicopter pilots in Iraq have begun changing flight patterns and using other evasive tactics to reduce the chances of being shot down by missiles and other weapons fired by guerillas, Defence Department officials said yesterday. "You can be certain that pilots are now taking different approaches to their tactics, techniques and procedures," one official, who asked not to be identified, told reporters.

snip...

At least 33 American soldiers died in October, double the number in the month before. And already in the first week of November another 31 soldiers have died. Some Defence officials said the military was looking into how many helicopters in Iraq were equipped with defensive packages, such as flares and metal chaff. "They are checking on those measures, and the maintenance status of each aircraft," one official said.

snip...

Mr Durbin said "reliable military sources" had told him they had been battling to get anti-missile equipment and that helicopter crews had been reduced to scavenging items from other helicopters.

A Pentagon spokesman, Marine Captain David Romley, said that sophisticated aircraft survivability equipment was not routinely installed on helicopters by manufacturers and that it was the option of military units to install it.

more...
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/08/1068243307813.html

equipment (and WHY wasn't this stuff installed? what the HELL is the pentagon doing with the billions and billions they get each year?

and WHY isn't there a congressional investigation into why our super-expensive military is so lacking in basic equipment?

sadly, absolutely nothing about thsi surprises me.

On their dime and ask Mommy and Daddy to send it because Dimbo wants to stuff all of that $87.5 Billion in his bank account somewhere.

it's not billions and billions it's hundreds of billions, and in the d.c. speak, where they add up tax cuts in 10 year chunks, it is trillions, folks, TRILLIONS. and troops are getting dysentary ferchrissakes!! soldiers searching the caves in afghanistan had to bring their own freakin flashlights. their boots were not built for the desert. and the white house makes sure that the funding bill is stripped of anti-fraud amendments. prison, they belong in prison.

and countryside to demonstrate our might. Then two more soldiers are killed. Good show.

relevant.
Who needs protection? Not our troops but our profits.