WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Insurgent attacks on U.S. helicopters in Iraq may get worse in coming months, a U.S. military expert warned Thursday.
Six U.S. helicopters have crashed in Iraq over the past three weeks "does not make a pattern," Anthony H. Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic Studies, a Washington think tank, wrote in an analysis released Thursday. However, "the insurgents may have found a new, high-profile way to attack the (United States)," he warned.
"The previous high for any single month is close to that for February 2006, and was five aircraft lost in January 2004. Over time, more than 170 American troops have died in helicopter crashes/attacks, or about 5.5 percent of American military casualties killed to date," Cordesman wrote.
"A Brookings estimate indicates that the (United States) has lost less than 60 helicopters since the start of the war in 2003, and flies thousands of sorties a month. These losses also compare with some 5,000 helicopters lost in Vietnam, about two-fifths of which were combat losses."
However, Cordemsan warned that increasing attacks on U.S. helicopters was "an attractive option," for Iraqi guerrillas.
"If the insurgents do 'swarm' around helicopters as a target, they also can use virtually any automatic weapon, manportable surface-to-air missiles, and even RPGs," Cordesman wrote. "An ambush can simply consist of training insurgent troops to "swarm" their fire if a helicopter simply happens to fly by, or it can consist of a wide variety of planned efforts to prepare for an attack. In any case, the insurgent effort is limited and no new weapons are needed.
"Helicopters are also highly desirable tactical targets. They are the key to rapid and relatively secure movement of forces and personnel," he wrote.
