Originally posted by ziezoe:
That's a good one
Why not just put some steel pipe around the potential LZs? Cheaper that way.
And why do AH need to go to LZs?
Actually the VC/NVA used to attach mines to small chutes retrieved from illum mortar rds and hang them in trees around LZs... let the U.S. Hueys come in and the upwind would carry it towards the helo..BAM!! But most of the time this crude anti-helo mine didn't work well...
As for AH going to LZs, AHs may have to run suppressing fire if the LZ is hot...AHMs can prevent them from doing so, therefore putting them at risk from other types of AA fire...handheld SAMs, AA guns, etc...
AHMs, when activated, travel at high enough speeds, giving the pilot(s) little time to take evasive action...Imagine leh, the Russian AHM is pretty cheap at about $6000....compared to a multimillion chopper...even worse if its a UH, considering they are slower and carry troops...how to heli-repel like that?