Gunship(s) in Sudan

[Gunship]

So who flies these Gunships in Dafor ?

Local pop ?

[126,7]

It is not clear who flies Sudan's more advanced warplanes, and some have suggested that Russian mercenary pilots may be involved.


Thats the most likely answer. Unless someone out there could enlighten us. Maybe some of the UN WFP guys flying there could help.



The following statement is two years old, but probably still applies today:

On Wednesday, a helicopter hovered over the World Food Program compound and fired five rockets into an area where "a large number of vulnerable people had gathered, waiting to receive food," the WFP said in a statement yesterday condemning the attack. WFP says it had a team of two people on the ground to distribute 76 metric tons of food to 10,000 people.

[fireitup]

The ones i've seen are flown by local airforce guys....but russian sounding instructors are often heard on the radio...

Good bit of comedy sometimes!:E

[SASless]

A couple of Manpads would put paid to that antic......who has a couple to spare? A few well placed RPG's would also work a treat on them....or a couple of .51's.

[Gunship]

Lo Mate ... good to hear from you !

Yip if you are not well trained and lots of previous experience (and I mean quite a lot) - you will end up in ashes with that machine.

She bites ...

SASless Re taking pot shots at her ... true a well placed RPG or Sam 7-8 will take her out - no problems ... but beware if you left a trail and you can not reload quickly enough :E:E:E

Have a good one in the Sudan ...

Cheers

Gunsss

[nutcracker43]

I was working in the Sudan a couple of years ago. A 'Hind' had landed a couple of days beforehand with a tail rotor control problem. It remained there for about a month and nobody paid it the slightest bit of attention. After I had been there about a month people suddenly started swarming over the aircraft and within a short period of time it was flown to a secure base further to the north. That night the local militia (neighbours) was attacked by people bent on mischief. The helicopter itself looked as though it had taken a number of hits in the past but these did not seem to have affected its servicability. Professional curiosity meant that the engineer and myself were guests at their site. I did not notice any Russion pilots, nor did I hear any Russian being spoken on their military frequencies.

There are a great number of Russians based at el Obeid who are working for the UN and there were a number of Iraqui pilots who had been seconded to their air force.