XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Night Stalkers!

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment was formed initially as Task Force 160, as a result of the debacle at Desert One during Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue Americans held hostage by Iran. The failure of helicopters in that raid convinced the Army, and more importantly, Special Forces, that they needed an…

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment was formed initially as Task Force 160, as a result of the debacle at Desert One during Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue Americans held hostage by Iran. The failure of helicopters in that raid convinced the Army, and more importantly, Special Forces, that they needed an aviation unit dedicated to the support of special operations.  With their modified versions of the Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters, as well as the MH-6 and AH-6 Little Birds, the 160th SOAR provides special operations units the ability to deliver forces at long range at night or in bad weather. The Night Stalkers are probably best known to the public for their losses in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous in the movie Black Hawk Down.

In addition to providing transport, the 160th provides fire support on the ground with AH-6 Little Birds, and with a modified MH-60L know as the Direct Action Penetrator, or DAP. Armed with forward firing miniguns, 30mm cannon, and 70mm rocket pods, it can unleash a hail of fire to support ground forces.

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  1. NaCly Dog

    Back in the day one of my ships had an open flight deck for night ops landings with Little Birds. They were a change from a CH-53E.

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  2. Pave Low John

    Ah yes, the old “TF 160”. I can’t tell you how many JRXs and EDREs I participated in during the late 1990s that turned into dick-measuring contests between the 20th SOS (the “Green Hornets”, my old unit) and the 160th. Talk about two units that hated each other…which was really weird when you stepped back and realized that the men in the two opposing groups were practically mirror-images of each other. People always bring up the friction between SF and NAVSPECWAR or the USMC infantry vs. Army infantry as examples of intramural dislike but the “SOF Helicopter Cold War” stands out for having been really nasty….

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