360 exclusive inside the fighting in Ukraine from a perspective that’s never been shown before. The view from inside a Ukrainian combat helicopter flying at treetop level and sometimes below the tree line under constant threat from ground fire and fighters above. Flying these choppers is one of the most dangerous jobs in this war. And with Russia beginning a new offensive, it could soon get even riskier. CNN Sam Kiley has the story. The target is Russian troops a hard bank left and a dove and flares to distract Heat-Seeking missiles. A pair of Ukrainian helicopters on an assault against Russian forces close to parliament. Russian aircraft are raging around the border. It’s on the front line. You should be careful when you go watch a flight from very low altitude and very low speed to prevent to prevent our recognition below trenches. And east Ukrainian villages smashed by war just back from the sortie. This forward base is secret, as low profile as possible. The eight helicopters are refueled and rearmed. They expect to fly at least three sorties a day. When you took off this morning, were you frightened by Well, because the Russians want to kill you. So they don’t have any other choice than to fight the Russians. If you frightened, should stay at home. That’s not an option here. This Soviet era helicopter is about 30 years old. The threat against it is extreme. And as a result of that, we’re having to fly quite literally below the height of trees, climbing and chipping with every piece of woodland that we pass. Built as transport aircraft. They’re most vulnerable when they climb to shoot their rockets, diving for cover to 20 feet above the ground is also perilous. A change in sound indicates a tree strike by the helicopter’s blades Back at base, the blades are swapped quickly. Ukraine doesn’t have aircraft to spare. This no pilots, sir. He skippers the chopper that hit the trees in year of routine. He tells me in December, a very close friend of mine died. A lot of people I knew friends have already died, unfortunately. It’s very painful and I’m very upset and I cannot move on. We’re supposed to. He went on. We need new attack helicopters, new jets. Unfortunately, our equipment is old and its range is very small, and it’s inaccurate. A year into fighting Russia’s invasion, Ukraine is still asking for more advanced helicopters and jets. So far, the response from her allies has been sorry, but no. And so they fight on here with what they’ve got Kylie joins us now from eastern Ukraine. That’s incredible. What was it like in that helicopter? I mean, the idea that you’re flying below the tree line, that the rotor of the helicopter actually hit a tree? I mean, it’s extraordinary the risk that these pilots are taking It is extraordinary risk. It’s a real sad David and Goliath. If we needed one of those comparisons in Ukraine, that would be it. These are ancient helicopters, that sort of Soviet equivalent of a Black Hawk, but a very old and ancient Blackhawk transport helicopter fitted with these rocket pods and sent into battle of fearful of fighter jets, of surface to air missiles, of ground fire I mean, they and when we were on that aircraft, I could have almost leant out the window and touched the stubble of the trees, of the fields of passing below me. So it really is extremely high risk. They have taken pretty heavy casualties, particularly at the beginning of the war, before they could organize themselves. The other thing I think is important to note here, by fluke entirely by fluke, a lot of these veteran pilots have been flying recently in the last 15, 20 years on a peacekeeping missions with the United Nations in Africa. So they’ve got a lot of hours. They’ve got a lot of hours in areas of conflict, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. Liberia, Mozambique and elsewhere. And as a consequence of that, they’re pretty, very, very highly skilled. And they’re all paired with much younger pilots. But one of the younger pilots I spoke to who has been flying in just a few years this year alone, Anderson, he counted to 100 combat sorties and then stop bothering Anderson. Incredible. Sam Kiley, thank you for that report. Really extraordinary. CNN military analyst and retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling joins us now. General Hurley, I mean, are those helicopters even designed for fear that they are? Anderson, those are my 17 helicopters. I think I just picked it up on the film as Sam was doing his report. And what what they’re flying is what’s called nap of the Earth. All combat aircraft do that. They try and stay as low as possible to avoid any kind of radar signatures. And there is that up and down nap of the earth under undulating terrain. But they are firing rocket pods and rocket pods are not precision weapons. They’re are somewhat the artillery of the air. So it’s difficult to really get a target strike with that unless you’re literally pointing at the target. And you could see the helicopter was flying over the terrain. And as they just fired their rockets, they’re really aiming toward an area for an area fire versus a precise target. So what would more advanced aircraft, advanced helicopters or, you know, helicopter gunships or aircraft? What would that allow Ukrainian forces to do that they can’t? Well, in some cases, certainly they advanced Western style aircraft. Sam mentioned the Black Hawk. I kind of chafed a little bit when you said they’re Asian ancient because they are not ancient. They’re actually pretty new in the Army’s imagery. But it will allow them more transport. It would give them guns on the side, the same kind of rocket pods where I think the pilots you’re talking about are more the attack helicopters. Like Apaches or even Cobras. Those are extremely expensive, very technologically advanced, takes a whole lot of training and a whole lot of maintenance. But they fire precision weapons from the aircraft and they can be tank killers from literally almost up to 12 kilometers away. But the training on that, how long does that take? It’s immense. You know, there’s been talk a lot about the F-16s. You would probably have to put as much time in an Apache helicopters you would for an F-16. And there’s, you know, a lot of language saying we need to give them the F-16. You’re in ad who’s the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, just said last week that it would take Ukrainian pilots a couple of weeks to just learn how to fly fighter jets. But about six months to really master how to fight the aircraft. That’s about the same for an Apache helicopter because they are so technologically advanced. They have heads up displays on their helmets themselves. Takes two pilots and it would just really take a very long training time besides being extremely expensive. General Hurtling, I appreciate it. Thank you.
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