Originally Posted by
Danny42C
"The pair have said that one of their proudest moments to date involved helping to foil a rocket" (RPG ?)
"attack on their base at Kandahar airfield in 2010. There was a high threat and the base was expecting an imminent attack after some men were spotted in a nearby ditch, setting up to fire a rocket at their accommodation block. They took the aircraft out to 15 miles from their position in the ditch and came down to low level, approaching at more than 500mph and as close to the Operational Low Flying minimum of 100 feet as possible, passing directly over them before heading into a steep climb. The rocket crew immediately scarpered in a truck and the pair felt they had made a tangible difference to protect their colleagues. The intention is to always use the minimum force required to provide the effect needed by the guys on the ground".
Am I missing something here ? This was in 2010, and there was a war going on in Afghanistan (as we have 453 good reasons to remember). This is the enemy, and he is making ready to kill you (or some of your comrades) if he can. You are airborne in one of the RAF's most powerful weapons. You have a 27mm cannon.
You buzz him off (as I used to shift a flock of goats off my strip before landing). So that he can come back later and try again ? (Better luck next time ?)
Danny42C.
Danny, the RoE in that operation were bizarre when I was involved a few years before what you report. That may have been the limit of what they were permitted, but pointing that out in public isn't good
PR, for one, and might give away even more of the store for another. As Dick Deadeye said in HMS Pinafore "Aye, it's a queer world." For sure.
@shotone: the governments in question have working agreements with each other not to do such things, that's why it isn't done. In Syria these days, it's Indian Country. Thus the door opens for options one would not exercise if there was one government to work with ... funny old thing, that's how is WAS in Syria before the revolt began.