Hellfire missile launched from Cessna AC-208 "Caravan" ©US Army/Sgt. Brandon Bolick
The Iraqi and Lebanese air forces have been fielded with a few Cessna AC-208Bs “Caravan” – Light ISR (Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance)/ ground-attack aircraft. In order to perform their missions, they feature an MX-15D camera/laser target designator along with anti-tank AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
Some may be astonished at discovering such combination – a light transport aircraft carrying a high-tech weapon system. However, the “Combat Caravan” flies faster than the Apache AH-64 which is used to launch Hellfire anti-tank missiles. After all, the Cessna seems to be a good choice for such purpose.
An Iraqi Air Force crew tracked and destroyed a target during a drill a few weeks ago. This exercise was carried out in partnership with the USAF 521st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron in Iraq as shown in the video below:
Another test had been carried out within the Lebanese Air Force a few months before (in Arabic):
AC-208-Caravan-and-Hellfire © Sgt. Brandon Bolick
AGM-114 Hellfire © Stahlkocher/Wikimedia
Special thanks to JoseM-SGP who passed the news on. Please, visit his website :
Sandglass Patrol as well as his Twitter account: @JoseM_SGP. Thank you very much indeed.
