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US preparing for combat with Russia by training against their attack helicopters

It's described as maintaining a "combat-ready status."

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An Mi-24 Hind sits at Lancaster Airport in Lancaster, Texas, on June 29, 2022. (A1C Courtney Sebastianelli/USAF via SWNS)

By Dean Murray via SWNS

America is preparing for air combat with Russia - by training against their attack helicopters.

Chilling scenes show U.S. Air Force chopper pilots facing off opposite a Russian-made Mil Mi-24 "Hind" gunship.

The week-long exercise took place at the end of June in Lancaster, Texas, and featured airmen from the 41st Rescue Squadron.

The squadron, based at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, specializes in combat rescue of downed aircrew behind enemy lines - a potential scenario if America got involved in the ongoing Ukraine crisis.

Described as maintaining a "combat-ready status," the search and rescue squadron can operate using night vision goggles in low-level formations to carry out "survivor recovery."

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The 41st were utilizing new HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters, described by makers Sikorsky as "building on the state-of-the-art UH-60M Black Hawk" - the helicopter infamous for the 1993 'Black Hawk Down' mission in Mogadishu, Somalia.

This marked the first time the HH-60W has been used by the U.S. Air Force in a scenario against an adversary helicopter like the Hind.

The U.S. Air Force's Capt. Tyler Hudson explains: "The contingent of the 41st Rescue Squadron is out here in Lancaster Texas to practice something we call basic helicopter maneuvering, which is essentially flying our helicopters and using our own tactics against an adversary helicopter."

Major Matthew Keough, 41st Rescue Squadron pilot, says: "It is a threat replication we can't get anywhere else.

"There are only a few (Hind gunships) that exist in the country and we were able to come out here and fight against an actual threat helicopter, so we get an accurate representation, both visually and aerodynamically that we can't get anywhere else.

"If we find ourselves in a theatre that has a bunch of Hinds, and Hinds are very prolific throughout the world, this will better prepare us to not have to replicate anything outside of training like we normally would at Moody.

"We get to fly the real thing, we get to see the real capabilities and real limits of the aircraft."

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