Will Laidlaw: Apache over Libya

A Hellfire missile about to strike a building. Delta-Hotel, the building is destroyed.

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A daring mission in January 2007 to recover a fallen Royal Marine in which the Apaches flew with rescuers sitting on the wings of the aircraft

Floatation Gear and a Canopy Jettison System safe to use underwater were explored after our experience at sea and are now MoD-funded projects

Rules of Engagement

Issue 1290, 10 June 2011

‘Gaddafi Makes Britain a Total Laughing Stock’, Daily Express , 30 July 2011

‘British, French Helicopters Attack Libyan Targets for FirstTime’, Washington Post , 4 June 2011

Pararescuemen

A head cover that makes the flying helmet more comfortable

Apache missions were launched in all three front lines in Libya (Brega, Zlitan and Nafusa), with our final missions taking place in the Nafusa mountains

Brief factual text conversations keep all commanders informed. Here Nick had transmitted to the ABCCC, who had then sent the text on JCHAT. His full message was, ‘Callsign Valkyrie has fired 7 Hellfire and 540 30mm destroying 6 armed pickup trucks, 1 building and several Regime soldiers. There was no collateral damage, nor were any civilians injured or killed. We are now returning to HMS Ocean where we expect to arrive in 10 minutes’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHlk6Ss6CzoThe MoD footage, not edited in chronological order, begins with the strike against the communications node on Okba airfield, then shows the 99th Hellfire strike against a technical, as described in the final quarter of this chapter. The footage then shows the destruction of eight technicals described above. In reality, the action took place as it is described in this chapter, but the footage is the actual guntape from that night

House of Commons Defence Committee, Operations in Libya, 9th Report of session, 25 January 2012. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmdfence/950/95007.htm

Extrapolated from the NATO daily briefing sheets found at http://www.jfcnaples.nato.int/Unified_Protector/page1915311.aspx

Strike sorties are intended to identify and engage appropriate targets, but do not necessarily deploy munitions each time

The UK flew a total of 2,100 strike sorties during the entire campaign, with our 48 contributing 2.3 per cent

UK Ministry of Defence website https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deputy-pm-welcomes-home-uk-forces-from-libya-campaignpublished 3 November 2011

It is very difficult to measure ‘cognitive effect’ – the degree to which the regime feared the Apache. However, when Khamis Gaddafi was allegedly killed on 29 August the regime announced he was killed by an Apache. This was reported by CNN and Sky among others. Hassan Ali Ibrahim, brother of government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, was killed in Az-Zawiyah on 18 August. Moussa Ibrahim blamed the Apache once more and again this was widely reported in the international media. Whatever the truth in this, it is clear the regime feared us