s5daw From Slovenia, joined May 2011, 170 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 months 3 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 2808 times:
Quote from a news aggregation site:
As of Monday evening, multiple police agencies and the military were
"conducting training exercises over Miami and elsewhere in the county. The exercise includes military helicopters firing machine-gun blanks while flying over highways and buildings. This YouTube video shows helicopters strafing highways with blank rounds near the Adrian Arts center. There are reports of similar actions in Houston From the Houston article: 'if you see the helicopters or hear gunfire, it's only a drill.'"
sprout5199 From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 1779 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (3 months 3 weeks 4 days ago) and read 2459 times:
Quoting L-188 (Reply 5): Sorry but i am not a fan of this style training.
There is only one way of training to fly in a high rise city environment. This was known locally. The city of Miami could have said no, however, they seen it as a way of getting training for themselves also. Plus, I'm sure this generated some extra cash in the local economy.
I bet it was cool to fly through the city, unloading with a .50 cal, even if it was just blanks. HARD-ONS all around, females included.
JohnM From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 310 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 2191 times:
Quoting sprout5199 (Reply 6): I bet it was cool to fly through the city, unloading with a .50 cal, even if it was just blanks. HARD-ONS all around, females included.
Most likely 7.62 mm M-240H machine gun. Aerial gunnery with live rounds much fun, firing blanks kinda sucks. The blanks foul and make the gun just plain filthy. The 240 is much easier to clean than the M-60D, but still a pain in the ass after blanks. What I didn't like was firing blanks just before deployment, I wanted the gun clean and running at 100%, filling it up with carbon and making it nasty right before I really needed it did not make many crew chiefs very happy, myself included. Makes for a longer day to take care of the helicopter and then have to deal with an extra dirty weapon.
As fantastic as the .50 gun is, there are drawbacks. Heavy gun, very heavy ammo. Throw in high temps, altitude, blade erosion tape, add on armor for the aircraft, water, etc. After a while you really cut into what you can carry, even in the bad ass UH-60.
I talked to some mounted ground guys who actually liked the M-240 over the M-2 in close Iraqi urban streets. Quick to aim the gun, and a high rate of fire. Another story however....
Another plus of aerial gunnery "over there" is no need for that pain in the ass bag to capture brass and links. Most goes in the aircraft at the crew chiefs feet, but plenty makes it overboard....no problem.
Don't get me wrong, the M-2 and the M-3 are bad ass and rule the world, but the 240 is a damn fine gun!
JohnM From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 310 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1952 times:
Quoting nomadd22 (Reply 9): Blanks in ground training have a purpose. Reaction to gunfire is part of things. But I'm not sure I see the benefit of firing blanks from helicopters.
Agreed. I don't see much benefit either. Sounds like a call made up the food chain a ways. I will throw out that it almost seems like a Dept of Homeland Security or law enforcement request sort of thing. When we did it, some was done on the edge of a military base. To react to fire to test our rules of engagement, and had an on observer watching our reaction. Didn't do a lot for us anyway. The real deal was briefed to us by the guys who we replaced in country.....
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