Netherlands Apache strike in Afghanistan

Aviation Week’s Joris Janssen Lok provided this Netherlands Defense Ministry video recorded by a Royal Netherlands Air Force AH-64D Apache attack helicopter during recent combat operations in southern Afghanistan. You can see and hear the crew talking to U.S. special forces on the ground, locating and identifying a Taliban position inside a quala-type farmhouse, zoom in on it, maneuver to get into a firing position, and then engaging the target with a salvo of 30-mm rounds. At the end of the video, some of the Taliban can be seen running away, trying to escape. For an in-depth interview with the Air Commodore commanding Netherlands helicopter operations, see the March 2008 issue of Defense Technology International magazine (http://. ). See also Aviation Week’s Ares defense technology blog (http://. ).