Operation Mount Hope III: the daring robbery of a Soviet helicopter by US forces

@DefAviation ES 5·01·2023 · 16:21 0

In the history of special operations, a US Army helicopter unit specialized in these missions has a place of honor.

The AFSOC 524th SOS: the 'airline' of the United States special operations military
Sky Warden: the agricultural plane chosen by the US Special Operations Command

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (160 SOAR), also known as the "Night Stalkers", is famous for having transported the Navy SEALs that eliminated Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad (Pakistan) in 2011, and also for their participation in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, in which two of their Black Hawk helicopters were shot down (some events that were reflected in the film < strong>"Black Hawk shot down" (2001).

But the Night Stalkers' most daring and successful operation is far less well known. It was carried out in June 1988 in Chad with one objective: the theft of a Soviet attack helicopter Mil Mi-25 "Hind" abandoned by the Libyans after 15 years of war in that country African. The United States had a special interest in getting that helicopter, the export version of the Soviet Mil Mi-24, to learn more about it.

The USAF deployed two C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft to N'Djamena in southwestern Chad, which carried a pair of MH-47 Chinook heavy helicopters from 160 SOAR upon arrival. From there the Night Stalkers flew 788 kilometers in the MH-47 to the Ouadi Doum aerodrome, in the hands of the Libyans, to carry out the theft of the helicopter, which was transported with slings by one of the Chinooks of the 160 SOAR. The operation was about to go awry when the Night Stalkers encountered a major sandstorm on their return to N'Djamena.

Once in N'Djamena, the Mi-25 was loaded onto one of the C-5s and taken to the US. It was, without a doubt, one of the most daring operations of the US special operations forces, and one of the most successful of the 160 SOAR. The YouTube channel Yarnhub has published an excellent recreation by computer of that audacious operation:

A retaliation for the Soviet theft of a Huey Cobra in Cambodia

It must be said that Operation Mount Hope III was a revenge for the Americans, since in 1968 Soviet special forces attacked an American airfield in Cambodia and stole an AH-1 Huey Cobra attack helicopter, destroying the remaining helicopters deployed at that base, which were used by the US in reconnaissance and rescue flights of downed pilots in Vietnam. What happened was one of the few direct combats between Soviet and American forces during the Cold War, and if it did not have major consequences, it is because the presence of US forces in Cambodia was secret at that time.

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Photos: War is Boring.