Little seems to frighten Taliban fighters in their relentlessly bold and bloody attacks on British bases across Helmand. Little, that is, except the menacing throb of an approaching Apache.
The British Apache attack helicopters have blunted numerous Taliban offensives and become a key battlefield weapon, according to commanders who are quickly forgetting earlier controversies over the $70-million per-plane cost and training delays.
”We’re really impressed. It’s a very effective beast,” said Major Huw Williams, second in command of Three Para battalion at Camp Bastion.
Armed with 30mm cannon and laser-guided rockets, the Apaches swoop from the sky during battle, offering valuable cover to embattled infantry soldiers and sending the insurgents scurrying for cover — if they are lucky.
”People die. There are many casualties but we don’t sit around and count them,” said T, an Apache pilot who requested anonymity in case of capture.
The Apaches are the latest addition to a multinational fleet of sophisticated war machines that stalk the skies of southern Afghanistan in pursuit of the Taliban. The United States has deployed the full gamut of its aerial arsenal, many with ominous names such as Spectre gunships, B-1 bombers, and A-10 ”warthogs”, named after the frenzied squealing noise made by a Gatling gun that fires at 3 900 rounds a minute.
The Netherlands, which is due to send 1 500 troops to lawless Uruzgan province from August, has also dispatched F-16 and Apaches.
The warplanes have accounted for the vast majority of an estimated 600 Taliban deaths since May, and have struck terror into otherwise fearless insurgents, said a regional security official. ”Air strikes make them genuinely terrified,” he said.
Their relative advantage was demonstrated in Kandahar on Sunday, where one Canadian died in a Taliban ambush and 10 insurgents perished in a coalition airstrike.
The British Apache pilots inhabit a world that bears more resemblance to a complex video game than the wilds of Afghanistan. Sitting in a cramped cockpit they are surrounded by video screens, joysticks and banks of buttons.
A powerful video lens means the co-pilot/gunner can read a car licence plate from 11km and accurately target a Talib 3,2km away. A digital image projected into one eye allows him to fly and fire simultaneously.
The payload includes ”fire-and-forget” laser-guided Hellfire missiles that cost $460 000 each. The first was recently fired to destroy a French jeep that had been abandoned during a fight in northern Helmand and which contained sensitive instruments.
The Apache’s benevolent aggression has earned much gratitude from fellow troops. ”After one mission a guy came up, shook my hand and said thanks. That felt really good,” said P. Yet for all their awesome firepower the pilots appear quite disconnected from ground realities.
Several asked eager questions about the Taliban, whom they have only seen as small figures on a digital screen. One pilot, J, admitted it was difficult often difficult to tell a Talib from an Afghan policeman. ”The Taliban and the police look the same — black beards and dark clothes,” he said.
And although the insurgents are little match for the Apaches — just one bullet has hit an Apache, passing harmlessly through the helicopter’s rump — they find ways to dodge the helicopters. ”They fight us like they fought the Russians: hit and run,” said J.
That association could signal another looming problem. The use of extreme force has already dented efforts to win hearts and minds among Afghan villagers, many of whom are convinced the British have come to avenge the last colonial defeat in 1880.
Officers admit they are worried that the screaming warplanes and bloody battles could rouse memories of the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, which prompted thousands of southern villagers to take up arms. ”There’s a lot of suspicion,” said Major Williams. ”There’s a danger people will see us as the new Soviets. We’re always looking for a softer image.”
The principal danger is civilian casualties. An American bombing in Kandahar in May, which local human rights groups said killed more than 30 civilians — the Americans admitted 12 — swelled anger among many southern villagers.
Apache pilots insist they only fire when they have recognised Taliban targets. ”If there’s any doubt we don’t pull the trigger,” said T.
Whether military action combined with ”hearts and minds” will succeed remains an open question. ”The Taliban can afford to wait,” said one western security official in southern Afghanistan. ”They don’t need a £38-million aircraft to kill their enemies — just a few old weapons,” he said.
”And it doesn’t matter how many Apaches or armoured Land Rovers you have. That still won’t stop a guy with a fuse and a detonator planting a bomb on the side of the road.”
Like many other British soldiers in Helmand, the pilots say their immediate goal, to rout the Taliban, is clear but the longer term aim is much fuzzier. ”As I understand it, our mission is to bring security so that development can start,” said J. ”The problem is that it will be very hard to know when we have achieved that. Two years, 10 years, I just don’t know.” – Guardian Unlimited Â