Got this email today:

A Must - Check out this Awesome Paint Job!
Check out what some of our boys overseas did to their helicopter.

Some Afghan is probably freaking out right about now.
The story is: this very special Mi-24 helicopter is presently flying in Afghanistan, where it is no doubt causing quite a stir. God Bless the USA

Sweet Job! gotta love the troops!:)

photoshop

if thats a M1-24 then thats a russian helicopter !
MI-24 Hind D variant helicopter . the hind helicopter came into service in 1976 .
5 rotor blades dead give away that it isnt ours . most if not all of ours have 4 not 5 rotor blades ( but it may have changed since 1982 )

Chris is right---the Hind is a Soviet/Russian platform. Maybe some Russian special ops boys are playing there?

It gave the fathers of some of those Afghans lots of nightmares before we started supplying the mujahadeen with the weapons to handle it.

Another

We actually have a few russian helicopters in our inventory. They are operational and are used at large maneuver centers as opposing force (OPFOR) helicopters. Nothing like seeing a Hind come over the treetops. After invading both Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no shortage of former Soviet equipment for use in training and as museum pieces.

These pictures (and a few others not dressed up) were circulated a lot just after 9/11 when we went in to Afghanistan. There were some captions that I don't remember (or if true) but they indicated that they were "our" 24Ds - but lots of people have them, not just the Russians... Yes, that is one nasty gunship/troop carrier and maybe some of you Star Wars fans might recognize some od the craft in the movies, not sure of the name as I'm not a S.W. nut, looked eerily like the Hind.


The Hind is very fast, fairly manueverable and it can outrun (or catch) an Apache. Though the Apache "could" still kick it's ass.

Now you want to talk interesting OPFOR, look at those 2 squardons of 29s the Luftwaffe has :humpty: - All I need is Powerball & Ebay and it's mine :laughs:

johnR there was an aircraft carrier on ebay like a year ago, kid you not. you could start your own army!:p