It's no good having extremely lethal helicopters if you can't dispatch them on relatively short notice. A fragile aircraft Apaches can dash or dive at up to 200 miles per hour, incredibly fast for a helicopter. But to allow it to do so, the pilot and gunner are encased in little more than thin Plexiglas and Kevlar, the same material used in helmets. By comparison, the Air Force's A-10 Warthog, which flies low to take out enemy tanks, is sheathed in tough titanium. Both aircraft's engines are spaced far apart to allow one to keep operating in case the other is hit.
Training is critical.
Even the best troops would find the environment in Albania daunting. Troops accustomed to training in Germany, where maps are precise and training areas familiar, must get used to higher, more rugged mountains where power and telephone lines aren't always on their charts. A wire is among the causes suspected in Wednesday's crash. Pilots who have flown the Apache say that wires are a constant concern that can be very difficult to detect, especially during night missions. Although the Apache was designed to battle Soviet forces in the forests and hills of Central Europe, the Dinaric Alps that hug the Adriatic coast from Croatia south through Yugoslavia and Albania are higher, ranging from 6,000 to 7,000 feet.