Provided the helicopter obligingly gives you a clear line of sight to engage them. If they have someone spotting for them, they should be able to lob guided missiles from behind terrain. Of course, there's no reason the opposite can't be true for the tanks and their support vehicles.
Just had a funny mental image of someone calling in an artillery strike to deal with enemy helicopters on the other side of a mountain or something. How badly could a barrage of 105mm beehive rounds ruin an attack chopper pilot's week?
Potentially pretty badly! I think it was the threat of direct-fire that led the US to embrace mast-mounted sights, on the Kiowa and the Longbow Apaches. Still lots of helis without them, though, especially in the light utility or recon birds with four-packs of wire-guided missiles strapped to the sides.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.![]()
Look up J-CATCH. Keep in mind that's with 1970s sensors and weapon seekers, though, which had trouble picking out a slow-moving target against ground clutter. Not the case with modern radar and FLIR.
Don't the Apaches carry anti-air missiles on the wingtips? Or was that just Fire Birds?
Helicopters might be able to ambush jets if the jets are, for whatever reason, constrained to flying low. Maybe they're doing ground-attack, maybe the presence of SAMs means they don't dare to go too high. Add terrain masking, and what you have with a heli is an extremely mobile gun or missile platform with fiendish maneuverability.
Mind, actually hitting the jet isn't easy, unless the jet decides to get in close for a missile or a gun shot. (Older missiles might have trouble locking on; modern imaging-infrared missiles will not, but helicopters can carry light AAMs too, and if the enemy is in range, so are you.) If both aircraft keep their distance from each other, though, things will be different.
Sometimes you might come across reports from the Iran-Iraq War about an Iraqi Hind that supposedly shot down an Iranian jet. What actually happened was that an Iranian Phantom on ground-attack got somewhat close to an Iraqi Hind; the Hind pointed in the direction of the F-4 and loosed all of its 57mm rockets (a full load is 128 rockets), and the F-4 pilot understandably got the hell away from all the fireworks. The story about the encounter spread and mutated after that.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Then there are the Heli vs Heli fights that only seemed to have happened during the Iran-Iraq war. Seriously I can't find any other instance of helicopters attacking each other beyond that conflict. They have fought with just about everything short of hot air balloons and rigid airships as far as I know.
edited 3rd Sep '16 2:36:00 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?In regards to the Chinese NCO corps, it does exist, but has been under reformation since the beginning of the decade (as per current policy). Time will tell if that will help at all, and we get to see what they can do in Syria.
If you want to follow what's going on in China generally the Jamestown Foundation's China Brief is useful
.
edited 4th Sep '16 5:31:37 AM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele(Cross-posted from the Aviation thread)
For the 75th anniversary of the Civil Air Patrol this December, the CAP commissioned a commemorative painting
depicting a CAP Cessna 182 Skylark performing aerial intercept training with the District of Columbia Air National Guard.
Major General Vasquez, the CAP's National Commander, will present the painting to the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff at the Air Force Association Conference this month.
Vanguard is taking pre-orders for a one-time run of signed lithograph prints. I want it, but I can't afford to dish out $100 for it. So I guess I'll just have to settle for the PDF version to turn into a desktop wallpaper.
UK special forces pictured on the ground in Syria
It is the vehicles that first stand out. The open air, [al-]Thalabnote long range patrol vehicles are built for harsh terrain and are favoured by special forces.
In this case it is British special forces, seen for the first time on the ground, inside Syria, in photographs obtained by the BBC.
The pictures, which date from June, follow an attack by the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the moderate rebel New Syrian Army base of Al Tanaf on the Syria-Iraq border. The British soldiers appear to be securing the base's perimeter.
According to eyewitnesses, they were there in a defensive role. But they are carrying an arsenal of equipment including sniper rifles, heavy machine guns and anti-tank missiles. If IS attacked again they would have been able to put up a considerable fight.
A New Syrian Army's spokesman refused to comment on the pictures of the special forces, but acknowledged their help.
He said: "We are receiving special forces training from our British and American partners. We're also getting weapons and equipment from the Pentagon as well as complete air support."
Today in squaddie, this happened.
Take a good look at where the mortar guy has the baseplate.
I'm willing to bet that there's a story behind that, involving bets and/or drinks.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.You do realise there's no evidence G Is ever actually shot the Knee Mortar off their legs?
"Yup. That tasted purple."Taiwan’s Military Reforms and Strategy: Reset Required
What does "Tier 1" mean in the US Military? Two sources say different things about the meaning.
One says it means the most elite units within the US Special Forces like Seal Team 6 and Delta Force.
However, the other says the first is incorrect due to a misconception by the public, just like how people confuse Defcon 5 for the highest alert when it's actually Defcon 1, as Tier 1 actually means which Military Unit gets the most priority and funds from the yearly US budget.

The Chinese TY-90 missile is a thing; reportedly it's one of the very few air-to-air missiles designed specifically for helicopter duels. With proper tactics modern tanks can at least keep helicopters at arms'-length; the FCS of tank guns and fusing of today's HE and HEAT shells means that each tank is also a mean low-altitude flak gun, and while they're unlikely to hurt low-flying jets, helicopters are well within their engagement envelope.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.