Saturday, April 28, 2007

SLAF Mi-24 performs '4th landing' near Anuradhapura Airbase

A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Mi-24 helicopter gunship was seriously damaged when it performed a '4th landing' due to a technical fault. The pilot and gunners managed to escape unharmed.

The gunship was engaged in a search operation when the technical fault materialized. The pilot then took steps to crash land the helicopter however it suffered significant damaged in this process.

Meanwhile air defence system at KAB was activated last night when troops received information about suspected aircraft inbound from LTTE held regions. However, it was later revealed that no LTTE aircraft flew towards KAB.

25 comments:

  1. "significant damage ", Does it mean that it is unusable, or can it be repaired locally ? Still, very disturbing news. And How many Hinds do we have currently (in service) ?

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  2. God only knows why the government turns to middle men when it comes to the purchase of weapons. All the government has to do is to use it's political ties with countries like Ukrain or Russia to purchase newly built or recently built MI-24s and MiGs. These brokers are selling us nearly worthless machines whose service life is very short.

    Another aircraft i think will do well for the SLAF is the Su-25 "Frogfoot". Its a prooven Close Air Support aircraft that is also heavily armored and carries a very heavy bomb load.

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  4. Well, fellas It's reported by jane's defence that SLAF has 13 Mi 24 Hinds hmmm... correct ? and It's reported by Economist that some influential local brokers & Sr.officers overrule any honest arms procurement.It's a shame the grunt's on the ground have to face the Music.But, we need more Mi 24's correct guys ?But,I love the Su 25 frogfoot v, much ! it kicked butt in Afghanistan !

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  5. "God only knows why the government turns to middle men when it comes to the purchase of weapons."

    Ahem, I thought every one knew why we buy overpriced junk?

    And not just once or twice by mistake. Consistently over time and across different regimes.

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  6. So , why do we consistantly buy junk ?

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  8. I saw para flairs arising from Rathmalana AFB between 1.30 - 1.45 and even I heard AA fire until 4.30am.

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  9. I saw para flares in Baththaramulla area and of course lots of gun fire.

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  10. Bless our soldiers, my true heroes.

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  11. dear defencenet:

    what happened today? were the ltte aircraft were on some kind of surveilance mission or was it with an intent to bomb selected sites around colombo? ratmalana airbase, baththarmulla (oil storage facillity?) and colombo harbour? that's more or less what i've heard so far. looking forward to hearing more soon

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  12. correction, muthurajawala.

    "Meanwhile, sources in Colombo said that 3 oil tanks were burning in Muthurajawala.." (tamil net)

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  13. an aunt of mine in wattala just called. she reckons some of the bombs dropped on muthurajawala did not explode. in fact according to her, it was an electricity transformer that got hit, not an oil tank as reported on tamilnet. any truth to this? a friend of hers whose husband works on site reported seeing two light aircraft about 100-120 meters overhead. he was amazed how small and innocuous they appeared. he could see that one of the planes had a light on. was it a cabin or tail light he saw? maybe a search beam? the type the police helicopters use? anyways, that's what ive heard.

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  14. From what I gather,the SLAF went on a intial sortie. I guess they did not expect an immediate retaliation. The tigers must have planned the attack long ago. However the LTTE would not have executed the attack today.

    What could have been a peacful night watching a possibile Sri Lanka comeback has turned in a disaster. Thats why just because the Father was an Air force Chief we should not have made the son as one.

    Had the president been around, do you think there would have been an intial SLAF attack and blackout.

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  15. We need those machines in the air as soon as word gets out that tiger aircrafts are on the way to attack..Any one watching war movies would agree that , the first thing to do is to scramble an aircraft and fly..Watch the movie Peal Harbour for a change.Get those bloody machines in the air before it is too late..What is the point in firing in the air with guns .? Are we going to wait untill they hit one of the economic or millitarty targets with major dameges..?

    The second thing the GOSL should try is to hire some Ukranian pilots to go after those LTTE mosquitoes..For whatever reason SLAF cannot do this..It is not the time to boast about our own capabilities.That stage is over now and we need action.But our boys cannot do this..The SLAF top hirerarchy must understand this.
    For a couple of million dollars the Ukrainian or Russian pilots would bring down those LTTE mosquitoes. We don't need 10 million dollar ukranian migs.But it is worth it rather than this ghemkhana we see almost everyday.

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  16. We can talk about hours which weapons to use against the LTTE air threats..That won't solve our problems..It is time some serious thinking..We need to get this right and We need it fast..

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  17. We need to ask for assistance from other governments..It is obvious now that we cant do it alone..

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  18. Tamilnet has claimed to shot a kfir and it failed to return to base. While mcns denies the claim here http://www.rnhit.com/mcns/fullnews.php?id=5539

    Anybody got any news on this?

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  19. Now they're saying it was a MIG-27.

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  20. Can someone confirm the news of the loss of a KFir or MiG-27. I just read about it and its too late for me to get in touch with my contacts in the AirForce. I'll have an update tomorro. Till then if anyone else gets some info, please share it.

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  21. If our air defense guns are unable to shoot down propeller powered cardboard planes of the TAF....whose to say that their automatic air defense guns (IF THEY HAVE ANY) can shoot down our birds that are flying at more than 700 mph???

    This all Tamilnet propaganda. Now their claiming it was a MIG-27 and not a Kfir.

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  22. I am not sure what it is, but it seems that LTTE is covering up for something bad happened to them with this air craft story. Any idea of the damage caused by the late night air raid in Vanni on the worldcup day? They may be trying to prop the morale of LTTE supporters and cadre after recent losses or unsuccessful air raids in Colombo. Tigers seem to be giving out too much information like the use of "automated air defence system," typically they will not reveal existance of such a system. Otherwise, they are posturing for some bad news to come, perhaps the fall of Thoppigala. Hope that the real news will surface soon.

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  23. The rotor blade damaged...need new spares and in about 2 weeks it should be okay and running

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  24. SLAF is a 300 aircraft outfit, according to contacts in the business. They comprise mainly of helicopters and aircraft of older vintage.

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