The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as 160th SOAR(A), is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and these missions are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice.
Nicknamed the Night Stalkers and called Task Force Brown within the JSOC, the 160th SOAR(A) is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Overview The 160th SOAR(A) consists of some of the Army's best-qualified aviators, crew chiefs, and support soldiers. Officers are all volunteers; enlisted soldiers volunteer or are assigned by the U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Until 2013, only men were allowed to be pilots in the 160th.
Upon joining the 160th, all soldiers are assigned to "Green Platoon", in which they receive intensive training in "advanced methods of the five basic combat skills: first responder, land navigation, combatives, weapons and teamwork". The weapons training includes firing thousands of rounds with M4/M4A1 carbines and SIG Sauer M17/M18 pistols.
Soldiers who fail the course the first time may retake it, but there is no guarantee that anyone assigned to Green Platoon will pass and continue on with the 160th. The basic Night Stalker course for enlisted soldiers lasts five weeks. The officer course lasts 20 to 28 weeks.
A new Night Stalker pilot arrives at a unit as Basic Mission Qualified (BMQ). After a series of skills test qualifications, experience, leadership, and oral review boards lasting up to three years, the Night Stalker is designated Fully Mission Qualified (FMQ). After three to five years as an FMQ, the Night Stalker may be nominated and assessed by a long process consisting of several flight evaluations to earn the flight lead qualification.
SOAR flight medics can qualify as special operations combat medics by completing the 36-week Special Operations Combat Medic (SOCM) course at Fort Bragg.
History 1980s and 1990s After the April 1980 Operation Eagle Claw attempt to rescue American hostages held in Tehran, Iran, failed, President Jimmy Carter ordered former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James L. Holloway III to determine how the U.S. military could best mount another attempt. At the time there were no U.S. helicopter units trained in this kind of stealthy, short-notice Special Operations mission.
The Army looked to the 101st Aviation Group, the air arm of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), which had the most diverse operating experience of the service's helicopter units, and selected elements of the 158th Aviation Battalion, 101st Aviation Battalion, 229th Aviation Battalion, and the 159th Aviation Battalion. The chosen pilots immediately entered intensive training in night flying.
This provisional unit was dubbed Task Force 158, since most of its pilots were Black Hawk aviators detached from the 158th. Their distinctive 101st "Screaming Eagle" patches remained on their uniforms. The Black Hawks and Chinooks continued to operate around Campbell Army Airfield at the north of the post, and Saber Army Heliport at the south. OH-6 Cayuses, aircraft that had vanished from the division after Vietnam, were hidden on base in an ammunition holding area still known as the "SHOC Pad", for "Special Helicopter Operations Company".
As the first batch of pilots completed training in the fall of 1980, a second attempt to rescue the hostages was planned for early 1981. Dubbed Operation Honey Badger, it was called off when the hostages were released on the morning of President Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
Task Force 158 was the Army's only special operations aviation unit, and its members had already become recognized as the Army's premier aviation night fighters. Their capability was judged too useful to lose, and so instead of returning to the 101st, the pilots and modified aircraft became a new unit. Original members of the Night Stalkers refer to it as "the day the Eagles came off".
They were originally created as Task Force 160, when the 101st Airborne Division was commanded by Jack V. Mackmull from June 1980 to August 1981. When the command was formally organized as a regiment, Mackmull was chosen to serve as its honorary colonel.
The unit was officially established on 16 October 1981, when it was designated the 160th Aviation Battalion.
In 1983, the 160th first saw combat during Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
In 1986, it was renamed the 160th Aviation Group (Airborne). In May 1990, their name changed to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). As demand for highly trained special operations aviation assets bloomed, the regiment activated three battalions, a separate detachment, and incorporated one Army National Guard unit, the 1st Battalion, 245th Aviation (OK ARNG).
In 1987 and 1988, its pilots took part in Operation Earnest Will, the protection of re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran–Iraq War. They flew from US Navy warships and leased oil barges in a secret sub-part called Operation Prime Chance. They became the first helicopter pilots to use night vision goggles and forward looking infrared (FLIR) devices in night combat.
In June 1988, the unit received a short-notice directive to recover a Soviet made Mi-25 Hind (Mi-24 Hind export version) attack helicopter from a remote location in Chad. The Hind was abandoned by the Libyans after 15 years of fighting, and was of great intelligence value to the U.S. In April 1988, two CH-47 Chinooks, a U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy, and 75 maintenance personnel and crew flew to White Sands AFB, New Mexico, to rehearse the mission. In late May 1988, an advance team went to Ndjamena, Chad, to await their aircraft.This date in ARSOA history: OPERATION MOUNT HOPE, U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command Facebook page, dated 11 June 2014, last accessed 9 June 2019
Two weeks later, two Chinooks and 76 crew members and maintenance personnel arrived by C-5. At midnight on 11 June 1988, two MH-47s flew 490 miles at night without outside navigational aids to the target location, the Ouadi Doum Airfield in northern Chad. The first Chinook landed and configured the Hind, while the second hovered overhead and sling loaded it for return to Ndjamena. A surprise sandstorm slowed the return trip, but less than 67 hours after the arrival of the C-5 in Chad, the ground crew had the Hind and Chinooks aboard and ready for return to the U.S.
In 1989, the Night Stalkers spearheaded Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama.
In 1991, they participated in Iraq, during Operation Desert Storm.
In October 1993 in Somalia, Night Stalkers fought in the Battle of Mogadishu, which became the subject of the book Black Hawk Down and its film adaptation. Two Night Stalker Black Hawks were shot down in the battle: Super 6–1, piloted by Cliff Wolcott, and Super 6–4, piloted by Mike Durant. Five of the eighteen men killed (not counting a nineteenth post-operation casualty) during the battle were members of the Night Stalkers team, who were lost along with the two aircraft.
Global war on terrorism 2001–2005
During the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the Night Stalkers from 2nd Battalion supported two task forces established in early October 2001: Dagger and Sword. Their unit in TF Sword was designated Task Force Brown.Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , p.25, p.29, p.31 In the evening of 18 October into 19 October 2001, two SOAR MH-47E helicopters, escorted by MH-60L (Direct Action Penetrators) (DAPs), airlifted U.S. troops from the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan page 127ff more than across the Hindu Kush mountains into Afghanistan.
The pilots of the Chinooks, flying in zero-visibility conditions, were refueled in flight three times during the 11-hour mission, establishing a new world record for combat rotorcraft. The troops—two 12-man Green Beret teams from the 5th Special Forces Group dubbed Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 555 and 595Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , p.29, p.32 plus four Air Force Combat Controllers—linked up with the CIA and Northern Alliance. Within a few weeks, the Northern Alliance, assisted by U.S. ground and air forces, captured several key cities from the Taliban.Units Credited With Assault Landings
In November 2001, Night Stalker AH-6J Little Birds took part in Objective Wolverine and Raptor missions and Operation Relentless Strike.Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , p.42 In December 2001, Night Stalker crews resupplied more than 150 Delta Force, British Special Boat Service, and CIA Special Activities Division operatives as they hunted for Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountain complex.Fury, Dalton. Kill Bin Laden. St Martin's, 2008. Print.
On 21 February 2002, while scouting Islamist terrorists on Basilan Island as part of Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines and seeking to rescue a nurse and an American missionary couple, a MH-47 crashed at sea in the southern Philippines' Bohol Strait, killing 10 servicemen (eight from E company, 160th SOAR and two from the 353rd Special Operations Group).
In March 2002, Night Stalkers from B Company, 2nd Battalion, 160th SOAR supported coalition troops during Operation Anaconda. At the Battle of Takur Ghar on 4 March, one of their MH-47Es, callsign Razor 03, was damaged by rocket-propelled grenades and crash-landed carrying Mako 30. A second MH-47E, callsign Razor 01, responded with a Quick Reaction Force; it was damaged by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and crash-landed. One Night Stalker was killed in the battle.Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , pp.29, 50, 58–59, 64–65, 185
In June 2002 in the Philippines, Night Stalker MH-47Es were involved in the operation that killed Abu Sabaya, a senior leader in Abu Sayyaf. A U.S. Predator drone marked Sabaya with an infrared laser as he tried to escape in a smuggler's boat. The MH-47Es trained searchlights on the boat while operators from the Philippine Naval Special Operations Group opened fire, killing the terrorist leader and capturing four other terrorists with him.
Later in 2002, in Afghanistan, Task Force 11 (previously known as Task Force Sword but renamed in January 2002) was composed of DEVGRU and a company of Rangers, and was supported by a company of helicopters from the 160th SOAR.Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 3rd Battalion, 160th SOAR, deployed as the Joint Special Operations Air Detachment-West under CJSOTF-West (Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-West/Task Force Dagger). It was equipped with eight MH-47E Chinooks, four MH-60L DAPs, and two MH-60L Black Hawks. At 9 p.m. on 19 March 2003, the first strike of Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out by members of the 160th SOAR, on Iraqi visual observation posts along the southern and western borders of Iraq. The strike groups included one flight of MH-60L DAPs and four "Black Swarm" flights, each consisting of a pair of AH-6M Little Birds; a FLIR-equipped, target-spotting MH-6M; and a pair of U.S. Air Force A-10As.Neville, Leigh, Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military), Osprey Publishing, 2015 , pp. 90, 97, 130–134