Taliban Stalked at Night

The Toronto Star
February 23, 2009

Two CH-146 Griffon Canadian helicopters took off into the dusk above the Kandahar Airfield one night last week. They made straight for the mountains, chasing a new objective in their pursuit of victory in the Afghan war. This mission of the new "air wing" of the Canadian military is possibly one of the most important duties that it will see, and will save many lives. The running lights on the aircrafts were switched off "once they cleared the wire", allowing the grey and black helicopters to camoflage with the night sky in their bleak surroundings. Their mission here was to stalk the taliban, searching and hunting for them in the night sky. The crew of both helicopters were equiped with night-vision goggles and darkness-piercing sensors, allowing them to survey the ground beneath them. The crew of each aircraft included two gunners, leaning their weapons through the open doorways and searching for any sign of motion in the mountains above Kandahar city. Outside of Kandahar city, the helicopters must pass volcanic peaks, the desert, and many other unique landforms before being enveloped in complete rural darkness. Originally, in December 2008, these helicopters were relegated as escorts for the new CH-47D Chinook transport helicopters. Now, however, they have been given a more dangerous and stealthy role - to hunt terrorists who deploy homemade bombs on the streets outside Kandahar. These roadside bombs have caused a deadly toll on Canadian soldiers, and have caused half of the 108 Canadian deaths on Afghan soil to date. It has long been recognized that the Griffon could be useful in reducing these casualties, but only recently has the air force taken action. The Griffons continually look for the road, which is two kilometers below them. They are on the lookout for bombers who are digging into the road or tunneling under highways, and hope to catch them in the act of planting these bombs. The electronics within the Griffon helicopters are very powerful, and greatly assist their search for the bombs. These Griffons were, in fact, made for the purpose of surveillance and combat and are therefore extremely useful to missions of this nature. There was a great debate as to whether they should be deployed, but were finally sent on this mission as there were not enough of the older model helicopters to go around. In this particular mission, the Griffons proved to be very helpful indeed, as they discovered two roadside bombs and defused them before any harm could be done. "If every time we go out, we can catch a few of those ahead of time, it makes you feel good," said Ben Massicotte, commander of the second Griffon. "Definitely."

In my opinion, the new CH-146 Griffon Canadian helicopters are extremely helpful and vital to the success of the Canadian mission. I believe that these technoilogically advanced machines have only begun their work with the Canadian military forces, and will continue to aid our country's military efforts in future years. They will continue to help us not only in battle, but also on stealth missions such as these to increase the safety of our peace keeping forces. While the fixed gun emplacements and open windows fit for gunners suit its use in battle, its camouflage colour, low noise, and high-tech electronic equipment is particularly useful in stealth missions. This electronic equipment is particularly helpful in situations where the military is required to defuse bombs since the helicopter's high-tech, new equipment can easily detect hidden bombs for the army's bomb-technicians to defuse. There was originally a debate as to whether these CH-146 Griffon helicopters would be deployed, as National Defence were strongly against deploying these modified utility helicopters that had not been proven in the field. However, when NATO allies reported that there were not enough AH-64 Apache helicopters in Kandahar to be distributed, the combat and surveillance helicopters were deployed to the Canadian forces without further question. Overall, I believe that these CH-146 helicopters are a vital addition to this and many future missions in increasing the safety of our Canadian troops and the peace effort as a whole.