Back in 1987, a damaged Libyan Mi-25 Hind D attack helicopter was captured by French and Chadian troops. The US wanted to inspect the helicopter and negotiated with the government of Chad to retrieve it.
Source: Wikipedia
On June 10, 1988, Operation Mount Hope III commenced to retrieve the Hind. The famous NightStakers (the 160th Special Operations Regiment) flew almost 500 miles at night with two MH-47 Chinooks to successfully retrieve the Hind and load it on a C-5.
Source: Wikipedia
Videos
There are a couple of cool videos on Youtube that can give you some good background. The first one is very informative but please note the Hind D is not the fastest helicopter currently.
The next video has the same cover photo but is different:
Reading
If you want to read more, check out:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mount_Hope_III
- https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20890/night-stalker-mh-47d-chinooks-once-snatched-a-libyan-hind-gunship-from-chad
- https://tacairnet.com/2015/05/12/hind-heist/
I hope you found this as interesting as I did.
Please note that the still photos are from the Wikipedia page listed above.
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