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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: air defense wires
Message-ID: <5546@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 89 05:23:12 GMT
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>Helicopters flying nap-of-the-earth (NOE) have been downed by striking
>power lines and other high wires.  It seems logical that one might
>deliberately string wires across passes, saddles, or even between tall
>trees as a means of defense or interdiction against NOE air operations.
>Does anybody know whether such measures would be effective and whether
>they have ever been used?

Unless you count barrage balloons, I don't think there's a historical
example yet.  However, this is probably a valuable tactic, not so much
because it would bring down lots of helicopters as because it would
make the helicopter pilots more cautious and hence less effective.

There is considerable work being done on equipping helicopters with some
sort of short-range radar or lidar that can "see" wires, and a good many
existing military helicopters are equipped with gadgets designed to cut
any wires they strike, but the problem is by no means solved yet.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu