Mil-24 Hind at RAF Spadeadam?

[wwrsimon]

I see that Spadeadam has a (ex-Iraqi?) Mil Mi24D Hind:

Eurodemobbed Aircraft (http://www.eurodemobbed.org.uk/index.php?location=2673)

I understand it went up there in May 2005. Has anyone any further details (or even photos)? Where it came from, when it was brought into the UK, markings/colourscheme and the like?

I'd be extremely grateful for any info anyone can provide. Many thanks.

Simon

[The Helpful Stacker]

Ex-East German I believe and surplus to requirements post-unification, as are a few of the GBAD vehicles on the site.

[wwrsimon]

Thanks for the reply. If that's the case I guess it's from the same source as the Su-22M4 then? I'm not sure where the 'ex-Iraqi' bit came from...

Simon

[wwrsimon]

Aha, the plot thickens! Any further details available?

Simon

[VinRouge]

And, what exactly, has that got to do with you? :suspect:

[Squirrel 41]

WWRSimon,

Here's the formety very secret story about how the HIND arrived at Spadeadam. I thought long and hard about revealing it, but prompted by your clearly interested and informed question, I think that the time for transparency has arrived.

So, yes, I bought the HIND (an export Mi-24V HIND-D msn 33245, produced in 1982) on eBay from Othman and Abdul's scrapyard outside Ramadi for a winning bid of £4404.21 + import duty + shipping & VAT in late 2004.

This particular HIND attracted me because it is a combat veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, and played a critical role in resupplying the Iraqi Republican Guards 4th Armd Div HQ with Johnnie Walker Black label and hard core porn in 1985-86. Sadly, none of the scotch or the porn remained on board by the time I took delivery.

Incidentally, Abdul is a nice bloke - he and Otham even threw in a free 1983 Iraqi AF desk mahogany HIND-D desk model because they thought I "was cool, like J-Zee".

Upon recepit of the HIND, I decided to donate it to Spadeadam so that people like you could ask boneheaded questions on Pprune for months about stuff that

(a) they could call Spadadam's PR office about directly

or

(b) may be F*ck all to do with them in the first place!

S41

[Two's in]

wwrsimon,

What our more or less garrulous chums have tried to say, although not entirely effectively, is that sometimes it is not appropriate or even allowed to identify certain aspects of the ownership chain of some of the more exotic pieces of hardware. The catch all phrase for controlling sensitve information is "need to know'. If you have a reason to know, you will be in the loop, if you don't, you either won't or shouldn't be. This is based on the simple premise that the less people know about something sensitive, the more likely it is to stay sensitive.

It is often not the material itself, but how it was obtained that is the real sensitivity. So even if the public is fully appraised of let's say, the Hind's characteristics, that doesn't stop the source of that material remaining sensitive long after the fact. OBTW, just because material is on the interwebs doesn't mean it is legal and cleared for release, it just means someone has put it on a website. Bottom line, you can always ask, but you may not get an answer for good reason.