CDF attack helicopter

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Air Service attack helicopter squadrons provide close air support for Sober Thought's Land Service against enemy concentrations of infantry, armoured infantry and infantry. They are the lighter counterparts to the jet tankbusters, jet ground attack planes and turbo-prop gunships.

Attack Helicopter Squadrons have their own sequence of ordinal numbers, e.g., 5th Attack Helicopter Squadron, 23rd Attack Helicopter Squadron, 55th Attack Helicopter Squadron. Three letter squadron codes common to all aircraft and squadron types are also used (e.g., ARZ, BTC, CHN, DLM), a fourth letter indicating the specific rotary wing aircraft in the squadron. The Community Defence Forces raise nine squadrons of attack helicopters each wave of one hundred million national population, plus additional elements present in the Composite Helicopter Squadron on each landing craft.


Command and air crew

As usual, the a Chief Lieutenant commands the squadron with the assitance of a Lieutenant acting as executive officer and a Warrant Officer as squadron sergeant. The three Flights of three helicopters each are led by Lieutenants. The remaining six helicopters in the squadron are piloted by Vice Lieutenants.

When the squadrons operate as part of a wing, the flying element (9 airships and 30, counting the command staff) remains under the command of the Chief Lieutenant but the ground elements are organised into Air Maintenance Squadrons and Administration Squadrons. The squadron CO, XO or SS may decide to command from the air or otherwise serve as relief crew. Besides the eleven pilots (counting the squadron CO, squadron XO and three flight COs) there are three Flight Sergeant Vice Warrant Officers and six Leading Fliers who serve as air weapons specialists along side their officer pilots.


Ground crew

The Air Maintenance Flight consists of 120 all ranks with a Lieutenant as CO, no flight XO and three Vice Lieutenants as detachment COs. The non-commissioned crew are divided into teams which deal with fuel, engine maintenance, airframe integrity and air ordnance.

The Administration Flight nominally consists of 33 all ranks, but that includes the three command staff accounted for elsewhere. In practice, the flight is headed by a Vice Lieutenant who oversees the various non-commissioned specialists in health, supply, land transportation, clerical work, public administration and nutrition.


Ground attack helicopter

The Community Defence Forces' HG-9 Hogarth ground support rotary wing aircraft is similar in concept and execution to the real world AH-1 Cobra or AH-64 Apache helicopters. It has two flight crew, the officer pilot sitting forward of the non-commissioned air weapons flier. A silhouette and additional technical details will follow.