Air Force E-11A Communications Aircraft Crashes And Burns In Afghanistan

[Agent K]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ons-aircraft-crashes-and-burns-in-afghanistan
Pictures and video footage circulating on social media shows that a U.S. Air Force E-11A Battlefield Airborne Control Node, or BACN, aircraft has crashed in Afghanistan.

Fox News has now reported that there were five individuals on board the E-11A at the time of the incident, according to U.S. officials, but it remains unclear if there were any survivors. Those same officials have denied the Taliban's claims that the group shot down the plane.

General David Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, has now publicly confirmed that the E-11A did crash in Afghanistan, but has not yet offered any details on the circumstances surrounding the event.
U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) has now also confirmed the E-11A crash and denied that the Taliban shot it down. There are still no details on the cause of the mishap and the fate of all of the crew members.
It is possible that the aircraft may have been attempting to make an emergency landing and it definitely skid across the ground before coming to its final resting point. While there is no evidence that the Taliban shot the aircraft down, it would have been exposed to attacks from that group after the crash.
Additional and graphic pictures reportedly from the crash site show what appears to be a badly burned body of one of the crew members. There are also pictures circulating online showing two bodies covered in blankets.
The Taliban claim that they have secured the crash site and are searching for two possible survivors of the crash.

 

[Dingo]

Denying that the Taliban were responsible tallies well with reality. I'm not aware of them having any heavier anti-aircraft weaponry than the infamous US-supplied Stingers, and Stinger missiles are VERY limited in what they can take out. They're only good for short ranges and low altitudes, so helicopters, jets taking off or landing.
Its possible that they took it down, but it wpuld have to be VERY low to be taken down by an antique Stinger.

 

[BombDr]

Denying that the Taliban were responsible tallies well with reality. I'm not aware of them having any heavier anti-aircraft weaponry than the infamous US-supplied Stingers, and Stinger missiles are VERY limited in what they can take out. They're only good for short ranges and low altitudes, so helicopters, jets taking off or landing.
Its possible that they took it down, but it wpuld have to be VERY low to be taken down by an antique Stinger.

The Stingers they had from the 80s won't work now.

 

[Dingo]

The Stingers they had from the 80s won't work now.

Shelf life of the propellant/warhead?

 

[Raymoh]

Shelf life of the propellant/warhead?

Not exactly, the FIM-92 launch system requires a device known as a battery coolant unit which provides both power and coolant to the missile prior to firing for the purposes of target acquisition and to cool the electronics to operating temperature. These fragile units are self-contained and are inserted into the pistol grip of the launcher, and contain both liquid argon and a thermal battery. As such, the shelf-life of these devices is limited, and while not impossible that usable units remain in the Taliban's possession, it is highly improbable.

 

[BombDr]

As above, and not to mention that these 30+ year old missiles will unlikely be stored correctly, and as not a single one has been used or attempted to be used against coalition forces since 2002, its even more improbable that they have any that function, even if they could get around the problem of powering them.

 

[Dingo]

Good to know! Thanks for the info.

 

[Agent K]

Denying that the Taliban were responsible tallies well with reality. I'm not aware of them having any heavier anti-aircraft weaponry than the infamous US-supplied Stingers, and Stinger missiles are VERY limited in what they can take out. They're only good for short ranges and low altitudes, so helicopters, jets taking off or landing.
Its possible that they took it down, but it would have to be VERY low to be taken down by an antique Stinger.

The Taliban has fired anti-aircraft missiles, like Stingers or SA-7 Strela or others, possibly supplied by Iran.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-taliban-missile-strike-chinook
The US military covered up a reported surface-to-air missile strike by the Taliban that shot down a Chinook helicopter over Helmand in 2007 and killed seven soldiers, including a British military photographer, the war logs show... The war logs detail at least 10 near-misses by missiles in four years against coalition aircraft, one while refuelling at 11,000ft and another involving a suspected Stinger missile of the kind supplied by the CIA to Afghan rebels in the 1980s...
As fighting intensified in April 2007 one unidentified source told an American officer that seven Manpads purchased by Iran from Algeria had been "clandestinely transported from Mashhad in Iran across the border into Afghanistan". Other reports, also unconfirmed, accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence of supplying weapons or missile-trainers to the Taliban.
Military experts say many Stingers may no longer be operational – due to drained batteries, for instance – but on at least one occasion US troops feared they were under fire from their own weapons...
Another eye-catching intelligence report from January 2009 says an Iranian agent, Hussein Razza, had arrived in Marjah in Helmand carrying four Stingers...
In August 2007 two Harrier jets flying at 270mph were circling a target when "an unidentified rocket" passed between them, leaving a thick smoke trail that soared above 21,000ft and took three minutes to dissipate.