This list of aviation shootdowns and accidents during the Iraq War includes incidents with Coalition and civilian aircraft during the Iraq War.
According to media reports, 129 helicopters and 24 fixed-wing aircraft were lost in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and February 2009. Of these incidents, 46 have been attributed to hostile fire, such as anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. In March 2007, Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt said that 130 helicopters had been lost in both Iraq and Afghanistan, about a third to hostile fire, and he was concerned that they were not being replaced fast enough.[1] A report published in Aircraft Survivability in Summer 2010 gave a total of 375 U.S. helicopters lost in Iraq and Afghanistan up to 2009. Of these, 70 were downed by hostile fire, while the other 305 losses have been classified as non-hostile or non-combat events.[2][3]
No unmanned aircraft of any type are included in the list below.
At least 283 people have died in helicopter crashes since the invasion, and 19 in fixed-wing crashes.
Since the beginning of the invasion helicopters were the target of attacks with "aerial improvised explosive devices" or home-made bombs.[4] In early 2007, the U.S. Army announced that the Iraqi insurgent groups had developed a strategy for attacking American helicopters.[5] This was confirmed by documents captured from Iraqi insurgents.[6][7] U.S. deputy commanding general Jim Simmons said that the average month in 2006 and 2007 saw about 17 attacks against helicopters.[8] Efforts to reduce losses included more training for helicopter pilots and improvements in tactics and aircraft defenses. In the fall of 2007, the U.S. military deployed the more advanced V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. According to the U.S. military, this aircraft flies much higher and faster than helicopters and has six to seven times more survivability than the widely used CH-46.[9]
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According to data compiled by a congressionally mandated study (see article pg. 9) on helicopter survivability, a total of 70 U.S. helicopters have been downed by hostile fire in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 through 2009. The report found that 375 helicopters in total have been lost; 305 of those classified as non-hostile and non-combat events. The study found that insurgents most often visually acquired their targets as 75 percent of helicopters were downed during daylight hours; the report does not say whether infra-red tracking missiles accounted for any night-time losses.
Documents captured from Iraqi insurgents indicate that some of the recent fatal attacks against U.S. helicopters are the result of a carefully planned strategy to focus on downing coalition aircraft, one that U.S. officials say has been carried out by mounting coordinated assaults with machine guns, rockets and surface-to-air missiles. The documents, which are said to have been drafted by al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, show that the militants were preparing to "concentrate on the air force." The contents of the documents are described in a U.S. intelligence report that was reviewed by The New York Times. Seized near Baghdad, the documents reflected the insurgents' military preparations from late last year, including plans for attacking aircraft using a variety of weapons.
The V-22 can carry troops three times as far, twice as fast and has six to seven times more survivability than the CH-46 widely used now in Iraq, the military says.