Attacking ships from the air

[hawky94]

I am writing a military fiction novel, and I've stumbled upon a problem - I want two helicopters carrying a force of five men per chopper to attack a cargo vessel, in order to acquire the contents of a container of stolen nuclear weapons. These heli's are equipped with M134 miniguns.

I also need to come up with a way that they might have been able to get the helis.

These helicopters could have been stolen from a base, but the armed guards would have made that unlikely, I'd like it to be creative. I'm really searching for suggestions.

I'm also actually looking for a way for the helicopter to airlift the container and transport it via air. But due to the volatility of the radioactive components, I'm also open to other suggestions.

I hope that I've not asked too big a question of the community.

Thanks, hawky

 

[EXSSBN2005]

Who are their sponsors, IE if some branch of US gov't that can requisition helos that makes a difference than say if they are some mafia type /crime syndicate vs terrorists, you said the weapons were already stolen are they reclaiming them for the former owners or stealing them anew? Might be easier for them to buy a mini gun from say libyan rebels who needed cash and steal civ helos from a local airfield / airport. Is the container that they are trying to take near the top of the cargo pile or buried under other containers so that they would need a crane operator to move them around and maybe capsize the ship, steal a bigger helocopter or break / open the container and just move the warheads themselfs. How did they get onto the ship, normal ops will not ship them via container nor w/o alot of guards making it a huge target for a nation state intent on racing your team to the prize also.

How good is their inteligence for knowing the shipping numbers, is the cargo guarded, since the ship is transporting nuc weapons would they have a stinger team or equivelent on board and maybe shoot down a 3rd helo carrying some story fodder, IRL this sounds like a sure way to meet a quick death at the hands of an SAM and adds maybe some more depth.

How old are the weapons that are being stolen, I was no MT but it seems to me that the missiles on my ship were only traded out individually when they had some maintanence that the MT's couldn't perform at sea or at the EHW.

 

[ngatimozart]

I am writing a military fiction novel, and I've stumbled upon a problem - I want two helicopters carrying a force of five men per chopper to attack a cargo vessel, in order to acquire the contents of a container of stolen nuclear weapons. These heli's are equipped with M134 miniguns.

I also need to come up with a way that they might have been able to get the helis.

These helicopters could have been stolen from a base, but the armed guards would have made that unlikely, I'd like it to be creative. I'm really searching for suggestions.

I'm also actually looking for a way for the helicopter to airlift the container and transport it via air. But due to the volatility of the radioactive components, I'm also open to other suggestions.

I hope that I've not asked too big a question of the community.

Thanks, hawky

For you to snatch the container from the ship you would have to presuppose that the box is stowed on deck and then being the top box on a stack (easy to get at). This can work because IMO (International Maritime Organisation) regulations around shipping of hazardous materials stipulate where they are stowed onboard a ship and separation between them and other hazardous materials and / or cargo. So go look them up. I do not know what it is for radioactive materials but you could work around that if it doesn't quite fit. IIRC Flammable Gases, Flammable Solids, and Flammable Liquids have to be stowed on the top deck and well away from each other. Another class to look at maybe Infectious Materials and how that is supposed to be stowed, or some of the solids. Corrosives is another that IIRC has to be stowed on the top deck.

The type and weight of container that is carrying the nuclear will determine the type of helicopter need to lift it. If it is a standard 20ft shipping container then the max weight of the container will be a shade over 22 tonne. Your average 20ft box weights just over 2 tonne empty and the max cargo weight wise you can load is 20 tonne. Note I am using ISO (metric) tonnes not US or imperial tons. So you have to determine the weight and physical dimensions of the nuclear material. IIRC your average 20ft box is 6m long x 2.3m wide x 2m high.

For a helo to lift a container it will need to hook to the twist lock holes in each corner at the top of the container. If it is weighty a cradle would probably be best. But apart from that you will need to speak to someone knowledgeable about helo heavy lifting procedures. Hope this helps.

 

[PCShogun]

I also need to come up with a way that they might have been able to get the helis.

These helicopters could have been stolen from a base, but the armed guards would have made that unlikely, I'd like it to be creative. I'm really searching for suggestions.
Thanks, hawky

Well, I hate to say this but if the base is anything like the one we have near us, you could probably WALK onto the base and do it. :shudder

The problem would be getting the mini-guns as those are most likely locked up in an armory.

Not being a pilot, there may be other things that prevent an unauthorized flight (like keys for the ignition?). But the base is so huge that I would not doubt you could walk across the road, under the fence and onto the tarmac without being detained, especially if you were in uniform and it was dark. Once you started to crank that boy up though, you are going to draw some attention.

Sorry, but NO!, I am not going to try and do this for you. Call Richard Marcinko, I heard he likes doing that kind of thing.

 

[Kilo 2-3]

Interesting question.

Utility helicopters are not hard to come by. Assuming your characters are military, they would most likely fly in aboard military helicopters. SOCOM in the US can draw upon aircraft from the Army's 160th SOAR, and many Navy helicopters can perform maritime VBSS (Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure) operations.

They could also simply borrow, steal or buy what they need. There's plenty of old surplus UH-1s and Bell 212/214 out there, along with S-70s and various Russian helicopters. As far as weapons go, machine guns are (relatively) easy to come buy. M60s, FN MAGs/M240s, FN MINIMIs/M249s, RPKs, DShKs, M2HB, etc. can all be acquired from arms dealers, war zones (eg post-conflict Libya), etc.

If you have you heart set on a M134-type gun. Dillon Aero does still manufacture and sell them, so there may be some possibility of the characters directly purchasing a them, or simply performing a "straw buy" via an intermediary.

One thing about miniguns though, they have to be wired into the aircraft's electrical system to work, since the rotation of the barrels is electrically-driven.

I'd also add a third helicopter to the mix. Have one helicopter land, and the other provide overwatch. Once the deck is secure, have a heavy-lift helicopter of some kind swoop in and just snatch the whole container. Mi-10, Mi-6, Chinook or Ch-54 Skycrane-type aircraft would work well for the task (assuming the container isn't too heavy).

 

[My2Cents]

The big questions every step of the way are:

1. How good is your intelligence? Every step in planning depends on how much you know.
2. What is their lead time? Do they only have hours, days, weeks, months, or a year or more to pull it off?
3. What is your budget? A shoe string operation, a million dollars, or effectively unlimited?

The more time, money, and intelligence you have the greater your options.

Now, let’s start with simple questions, like:

• 
  Where will the ‘transfer’ take place?
  • Helicopters are fairly short ranged, about 300 miles round trip. Surveillance radar can reach out over 100 miles if placed high enough. Operating without filing a flight plan raises questions. Helicopters flying to cargo ships passing off shore and back raise alarms. Will this be a problem?
  • Are the local authorities alert for pirates or, even worse, smugglers? The former will try to interrupt your theft and drive you off, the later will attempt to track you for intercept and capture.
• Who made the nukes?
• How many warheads are you acquiring?
• How much does each weigh, with and without packing?

Now, work the problem backwards:
Start with where does everything end up and how does it get there.

• The bombs
• Personnel, even if it is a quick trip to the bottom of the ocean with a bullet in the base of the skull. Don’t forget the crew of the freighter you hijacked.
• The helicopters, guns, and whatever you use to transport the nukes wherever they are going after the helicopters.

I'm also actually looking for a way for the helicopter to airlift the container and transport it via air. But due to the volatility of the radioactive components, I'm also open to other suggestions.

This is probably going to be a standard ISO shipping container, 8’ wide x 8’6” high x either 20’ or 40’ long, the containers have a tare (empty) weight of 2.2MT and 3.8MT, and a maximum gross weight of 30.4 MT for either length. Unless you have detailed intelligence, assume the worst at 30.4 MT because the nukes will have to have been camouflaged and shielded to get them past customs. That is too much, even for a heavy lift helicopter, you are going to have to unpack it on board. Bring an EOD man (or maybe a team) for the job to check for booby traps as they go, the people who stole the nukes are likely to be ‘if-I-can’t-have-them-neither-can-you’ types. This could take hours, depending on the levels of paranoia on both sides.

Not sure what you mean by “volatility”. If the nukes are from one of the well established powers (USA, Russia, France, UK, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, etc.) the contents are probably not any more volatile than other explosive munitions, so just don’t drop them. If they are from North Korea or Iran it might be a better idea to have your EOD man disassemble them on the spot and just take the ‘pit’s.

I also need to come up with a way that they might have been able to get the helis.

The best would be to set up an offshore construction firm as a shell company through multiple layers of cut-outs, and then just lease the helicopters. That also gives you a base of operations and cover for a flight plan.
Unfortunately this sounds more like only a couple of days and a lot of money.

These helicopters could have been stolen from a base, but the armed guards would have made that unlikely, I'd like it to be creative. I'm really searching for suggestions.

Security at military bases may not be too tight, as described elsewhere, but there will be some people around at all times on guard. There is no way to quietly fly out a stole a helicopter, so you will have to take everyone out, and load them on trucks. Because:

1. They usually have some form of air search radar to track you with, and have a high probably of track you close enough to stop the rest of your operation
2. A direct line to the.people with fixed wing interceptors (typically 3x to 5x your top speed). . It means you have to get to ground and camouflaged before they arrive, or launch the operation directly from the base with no time to modify the helicopters for the miniguns or more than a spot-and-go to pick up the rest of the team. So you have to steal full military machines. That can make the rest of you operation difficult to impossible if they are still on alert for the stolen helicopters, even if you can get to shelter and hide.
3. Immediate access to lots of search personnel and aerial surveillance. If they have a line on your departure the search area can narrow a lot. That makes the ground and hide option impractical if you fly them out.

Looks like your best bet might be to kill everyone before an alarm is raised, and load the helicopters on trucks. Avoiding being spotted by the police and getting out of the search zone before you are spotted will be a problem. I would suggest a lot of decoy trucks.

This is going to be a BIG operation with lots of people. Security is essential, and nearly impossible.