megan (your #16)
...Also a story of a female crew plinking with their F-14 cannon on Bora Bora when that was all the go...
Here is a copy of another of my Posts which is relevant to this story (15.1.15 p.334 #6670). Unfortunately I cannot trace it back to the Post referred to:
...(Copied from another of my Posts on another Thread)
My eye was caught by this link:
(Extract D.Tel. 9.1.15).
"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 (RPG ?) 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 ?
I am a simple soul. Can someone please explain this to me (after all, my war was 70 years ago, and things change).
Danny.
Afterthought 1: I have my grandfather's India General Service Medal (with a clasp for Kandahar !) Nothing changes !
Afterthought 2: Radio a day or two ago reports that the Afghan Premier has appointed a Taliban General as Governer of the Helmand Province (If true, you couldn't invent it). D...
The twist to the story was, of course, that the crew were two ladies (I understand that the WSO [?] is now CO of a FJ Sqn). This was not mentioned in my original post as it was irrelevant - the problem was the ROE.
What do you suppose Major Campbell would have done under those circumstances ? Are the USAF ROEs the same ?
Danny.
megan,
Not seen a copy of the Report, but this was discussed a long time ago on "Pilot's Brevet" (reference not to hand, but could be dug up). He was rather disparaging of the VV, reckoning that the Stuka was superior as a dive bomber, inasmuch as the Stuka could be dived vertically, whereas the VV could not (which is the reverse of the fact). We concluded that he was given a Mk. IV (A-35) to test, in which case he may well have been right. As I never flew a Mk. IV, I am not an authority on them.
Unless the report says anything more, don't send a copy - but thanks all the same !
Danny.