Original Message

Have you ever seen an H160 in the flesh? No? Because they're like Playboy center-folds, scarce on the real-world ground.

Besides Russia, which European military have a helicopter that compares to the Apache, in widespread use?

Is the Blackhawk replacement going to be an affordable, expendable aircraft in combat? 47% of UH-1 models A thru H deployed to that 'crazy Asian War' were lost. I will allow that some of those 'lost' were probably recovered and returned to service. I am kinda suspicious of government figures in that war and all operations since.

We can argue about the Blackhawk's European equivalent, but that design is almost old enough to qualify as a senior citizen. I'm not slamming the UH 60. Like the Huey, it was a design that met the needs of the moment, and still works in some scenarios.

Modern combat has advanced a great deal. I was never tracked and fired on by antiaircraft or MANPADs. But I was in IV Corps, approx. 100 miles from Cambodia at the longest, operating between 500 and 580 miles from the DMZ. What was used against friendlies there was stolen from US supply depots or the South Vietnamese military- which I flew with, occasionally.