I had no idea those were target drones, and those were the videos I referred to in the post where I said I was impressed on how tough the Mi24 was in the first video as I'd seen others of them exploding when impacted.
Yeah, one of the reasons I dislike Discovery channel type documentaries is their tendency to use inappropriate stock footage like this without telling the viewer.
I realize how tough they are, in fact I get time up close and personal with an Mi24 occasionally. Nic Bicanic, the film maker who produced and directed Shadow Company, a documentary narrated by Gerard Butler that featured my company and some of the training courses we ran as well as our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan became a good friend of mine after following me around for weeks. He also happens to own an Mi24, and can be seen flying it in the movie "Blood Diamond". The only Russian made helos I would get to see up close in the mid-east were troop carriers like the Hip, but I've climbed all over and through his Mi24, and I always figured it would stop small arms as it was designed, but really surprises me with its resilience to explosive missile hits.
You're making me quite envious...
I've seen plenty of Mi-24D/Vs up close at Split airbase as the Croatians flew them against the Bosnian Serbs, but I've never got to look inside one. About your friend's Hind... In the movie it is seen with an extensive upgrade of South African manufacture. Do you know if this was just temporary "product placement" or do your friend still have this upgrade? Where does he fly his Mi-24 "Superhind"? Neall Ellis, the merc who flew the Hind in Sierra Leone and for EO (the backdrop for Blood Diamond), flew/flies a pretty standard 24V:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdsiZOE-5zYI wonder how the Mi24's that were shot down by Aim120's and Aim9's fared by comparison to the Sa7 and Stinger impacts, when the warheads are much larger. It wouldn't surprise me if the result was much the same, as there are lots of pictures of A10's that took SA-6 hits and still made it home, even in poor shape. Like I said in the original post - one tough machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBpzuDRt0A
That's a video of the Aim9x hitting an F4 drone. The first sequence it looks like the F4 really doesn't suffer a whole lot of structural damage or loss, just fire, until it starts going out of control. Is this typical of Aim9 hits? It makes me wonder about even their lethality if large pieces aren't being chopped off or the target being blown up somewhat.
Survival against larger missiles like the AIM-9 and 120 is very unlikely. Even if the missile doesn't blow the aircraft physically apart it is much more likely to render it unflyable. These missiles have much larger warheads, and also more kinetic energy from their higher speeds. The smaller AIM-9 has a warhead three times the size of the Stinger's, and what, 8 times that of the Igla? That's some serious bang.
Fast jets tend to break apart after missile hits, not because of the explosive force of the missile, but because of aerodynamic forces over stressing the airframe after losing control.
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Nrshida, you'll have to do better than that if you want to troll me.
