Marines train with Russian aircraft
Marines in Arizona will soon duke it out with a crop duster and a Russian helo in a new effort to understand enemy tactics and weaponry.
The Antonov An-2, built after World War II, and the Russian Mi-24 Hind, a 1980s-era helo, will be flown at the biannual Weapons and Tactics Instructor course aboard Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
The An-2 is a bit of an oddity. Designed as a crop duster, it became widely used by the Russian military as a workhorse for everything from carrying cargo, to troop insertion, to reconnaissance. The Chinese began producing their own copy of the aircraft in the 1970s. North Korea uses it today.
While the An-2 might look like a joke as it putters across the battlefield with a single prop engine, it can be a deadly tool. In 1991, the Croatian air force used them to drop makeshift bombs during that country’s civil war.
The Mi-24, on the other hand, looks just as tough as it is. Designed by the Soviets for use in Afghanistan in the 1980s, it is the Russian counterpart to the U.S. AH-64 Apache. It laid waste to many Afghan villages and was feared by the Mujahedeen. Armed to the teeth with rockets and machine guns, it can also carry eight shock troops in full battle rattle. The Mi-24 was sold widely to Pakistan, Algeria, Brazil, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Peru, just to name a few. Today the Mi-24 and the similar-but-updated Mi-35 are being flown by the Afghan air force, which is trained by U.S. and NATO pilots.
The contract for the aircraft is still being ironed out. Vertol Systems Co. has a five-year, $3.4 million contract with the Corps to provide the two aircraft for the WTI course. However, a competitor is countering the contract and has filed a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office. Marine officials won’t comment on the contract until the complaint, filed by OPFOR Group LLC, is resolved, said 1st Lt. Scott Villiard, a spokesman for Training and Education Comman in Quantico, Va.
Documents on FedBizOpps.gov, a website that details government contracts, said the Corps wants the aircraft to “replicate the intended hostile force’s tactics.”
The An-2 will be used for anti-air warfare exercises so Marines operating airborne and ground-based air defense units can become familiar with the aircraft’s radar signature and what it looks like on visual equipment and in infrared.
“Visual identification and countering enemy weapons systems capabilities would be the primary student learning objectives,” reads the solicitation, offer and award document.
The Mi-24, on the other hand, has a wider array of missions at the course. It will attack other helicopters, jets, forward operating bases, forward arming and refueling points and anti-aircraft artillery defense units, giving everyone from Marine pilots to ground support troops a run for their money.
More specifically, the helicopter will be used to stress forces “conducting joint air and missile defense operations.
“The attack helicopter, due to its size, flight profile, firepower and defensive maneuvering capabilities, constitutes a unique threat,” the document states.
It will also be used to interfere with forces conducting joint close-air support. In other words, a friendly helicopter or fighter called on station to help ground troops could also have to contend with the Mi-24.
The ultimate goal of the training course, led by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1, is to teach complex air support skills to pilots who, once certified at the end of the six-week course, can return to their units and disseminate the information they learned. The class also helps ground combat and ground combat support officers become more adept at working with the pilots who transport and protect them from overhead.