if one needed one of those comparisons in ukraine, that would be it. these ancient helicopters are sort of soviet equivalent of a blackhawk, but a very old and ancient blackhawk transport helicopter fitted with these rocket pods and sent into battle, fearful of fighter jets, of surface to air missiles, of ground fire. when we were on that aircraft i could have almost leaned out the window and touched the stubble of the trees of the field passing below me. so it really is extremely high risk. they have taken pretty heavy casualties, particularly at the beginning of the war, before they could organize themselves. the other thing i think is important to note here, by fluke, entirely by fluke, a lot of these veteran pilots have been flying recently, in the last 15 to 20 years, on peacekeeping missions with the united nations in africa. so they got a lot of hours. they ve got a lot of hours in areas of conflict like the democratic republic of the
sam kylie joins us from eastern ukraine. sam, that s incredible. what was it like in that helicopter? i mean, the idea that you re flying below the treeline, that the rotor of the helicopter actually hit a tree, i mean, it s extraordinary, the risk that these pilots are taking. it is extraordinary risk. it s a real david and goliath if one needed one of those comparison in his ukraine, that would be it. these are ancient helicopters, sort of soviet equivalent of a black hawk, but a very old and ancient black hawk transport helicopter fitted with these rocket pods, and sent into battle, fearful of fighter jets, of surface-to-air missiles, of ground fire. i mean, when we were on that aircraft, i could have almost lent out the window and touched the stubble of the trees of the fields passing below me. so it really is extremely high risk. they have taken pretty heavy
transport. it would give them guns on the side, the same kind of rocket pods. what i think the pilots are talking about are more the attack helicopters like apaches or even cobras. those are extremely expensive, very technologically advanced. takes a whole lot of training and a whole lot of maintenance. but they fire precision weapons from the aircraft, and they can be tank killers from literally almost up to 12 kilometers away. the training on that, how long does that take? there s been talk a lot about the f-16s. you would probably have to put as much time in an apache helicopter as you would for an f-16. and there s a lot of language saying we need to give them the f-16. the spokesman for the ukrainian air force just said last week that it would take ukrainian pilots a couple of weeks to just learn how to fly fighter jets, but about six months to really master how to fight the aircraft. about about the same for the apache helicopter, because they are so technologically advanced.
those are mi17 helicopters, i think. i just picked it up on the film as sam was doing his report. and what they re flying is what s called map of the earth. all combat aircraft do that. they try and stay as low as possible to avoid any kind of radar signatures, and there is that up and down nap of the earth undulating terrain. they re firing rocket pods, and rocket pods are not precision weapons. they re somewhat the artillery of the air. it s difficult to get a target strike with that unless you re literally pointing at the target. and you can see as the helicopter was flying over the terrain and as they just fired their rockets, they re really aiming toward an area for an area fire versus a precise target. so what would more advance aircraft, advanced helicopters or, you know, gunships or aircraft, what would that allow ukrainian forces to do that they can t? well, in some cases,
earth under undulating terrain. but they are firing rocket pods, and rocket pods are not precision weapons. they are somewhat the artillery of the air, so it s difficult to really get a target strike with that, unless you are literally pointing at the target. you can see as a helicopter was flying over the terrain, and as they just fired their rockets, they re really aiming toward an area, for an area fire versus a precise target. so what would more advanced aircraft, advanced helicopters, or gunships or aircraft what would that allow ukrainian forces to do that they can t? well, in some cases certainly the advanced western- styl e aircraft, sam mentioned the blackhawk, i kind of chafed a little when he said they are ancient because they are not ancient. they are actually pretty new in the army s inventory, but it would allow them more