The Mi-24 Hind is often described as the meanest-looking helicopter ever built, and it was certainly one of the most capable. It first appeared on the world stage in 1972 and was both respected and feared.
The Hind was fast, agile, heavily armed, and heavily armored. Its armor was bullet-resistant up to 12.7 millimeter caliber from any direction, and the cockpit was protected by ballistic-resistant windscreens and a titanium armor tub.
It was also fast enough to hold the official world speed record of 332 kilometers per hour, or 206 miles per hour. Its rotor blades were even made of titanium.
With a mixed armaments loadout, the Hind could be tasked with close air support, anti-tank operations, or aerial combat. Unlike its NATO contemporary, the Apache gunship, it could also carry eight fully equipped troops or twelve partially equipped soldiers, making it essentially two helicopters in one: a gunship and a transport.
The Soviet Union built thousands of them. In the 1980s, a new updated export model, the Mi-25 Hind-D, was one of the most advanced helicopters in the world. Western intelligence wanted to obtain one to study and compare with NATO gunships.
But the 1980s were the height of the Cold War, and the only way the Americans were going to study an Mi-25 was through subterfuge. From 1985 onward, under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had thawed slightly, but the arms race initiated by President Reagan was still ongoing and neither side fully trusted the other.
The Soviets still jealously guarded their military secrets, and both sides still had plenty of nuclear missiles and huge conventional forces ready for any potential conflict. Stealing top-secret Soviet technology could be a risky move for the Americans, and they were very careful about how and where they went about it.
An opportunity finally arose in 1987. The Soviet Union routinely armed and trained friendly third-world clients, and Libya, led by the colorful dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, was a good customer.
Gaddafi was deeply and vocally hostile to the US government. The Libyan Air Force had several of the latest Mi-25 Hinds in its inventory and was involved in military operations in neighboring Chad.
The civil war was raging in Chad, and Gaddafi made numerous incursions hoping to increase Libya's territory by taking some of northern Chad. Libyan forces deployed some of their best equipment, including both the Mi-25 and the older Mi-24A.
In March 1987, the US and French-backed Armed Forces of the North, a Chadian rebel group, managed to capture a Libyan air force base at Wadi Doum in northern Chad. Libyan forces evacuated the base with almost unseemly haste, leaving behind an Mi-25.
French and rebel forces took over the airbase, and the Hind was placed in storage on site. The CIA requested that the helicopter be turned over to the US, and the French agreed.
The question was how to get the Hind out of Chad through airspace still crawling with Libyan MiGs. America was not exactly in Gaddafi's good graces, since its air raid on Tripoli in 1986 following the bombing of a West Berlin disco frequented by US servicemen.
President Ronald Reagan believed Libya was behind the atrocity, as Gaddafi armed and funded many terrorist groups worldwide. A retaliatory air strike caused extensive damage in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
In a televised address, Reagan said that at seven o'clock that evening Eastern time, air and naval forces of the United States launched a series of strikes against the headquarters, terrorist facilities, and military assets that support Muammar Gaddafi's subversive activities. He added that the attacks were concentrated and carefully targeted to minimize casualties among the Libyan people, with whom, he said, the United States had no quarrel.
So removing the Hind from a position close to Libya was a bit of a head-scratcher for the CIA. Fortunately, the agency had access to some fairly extraordinary resources, including a helicopter unit that existed solely for these kinds of high-risk operations.
The Chadians would not be a problem. They would be happy for a nice cash payoff of two million dollars plus some Stinger missiles from the CIA. But the removal of the helicopter from Chad would be a US responsibility.
The CIA turned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, more popularly known as the Night Stalkers. Such an operation required careful planning and preparation.
Training commenced at the famous White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb had been tested in July 1945. The Hind weighed 17,000 to 18,000 pounds, or slightly over eight tons.
The Night Stalkers determined that the MH-47, or Chinook, had sufficient power to lift the Hind. Two Chinooks would be used: one lifting the aircraft and the other as a backup, carrying personnel and other bits of the aircraft that had been stripped from the Hind.
The mission, codenamed Operation Mount Hope III, was a risky proposition. The US had an unhappy recent history in the desert, having lost one helicopter and one transport aircraft destroyed and five helicopters abandoned and captured in 1982 during a failed hostage rescue mission in Iran codenamed Operation Eagle Claw. Eight US servicemen had also died in that operation.
For Mount Hope III, two MH-47 Chinooks and 75 personnel were loaded aboard a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. The plane landed at N'Djamena International Airport in southern Chad on May 21, 1988.
A small advanced reconnaissance team was flown in one of the Chinooks to Wadi Doum airfield. They would also begin the process of partly disassembling the Hind ready for transit.
France also assisted the operation by providing some ground troops and Mirage F1 jets, to hopefully deter any hostile action by Libyan MiGs if they found out about the extraction of the Hind. A C-130 Hercules would act as a refueling aircraft for the Chinooks.
On June 11, 1988, the mission commenced. The second Chinook took off and flew 500 miles north in darkness, planning to collect the Hind at daybreak.
The advance team was already at Wadi Doum making preparations. They were also closely monitoring nearby Libyan forces.
Everyone knew that if the Libyans discovered the US operation, they would attack, and the extraction force was not equipped for fighting enemy troops or aircraft. The advance team had already prepared the Hind for extraction.
The second Chinook then hovered overhead, and the Hind in its sling was hooked up. The Chinook hoisted the Hind into the air and began to head back to N'Djamena.
The second Chinook then completed loading of other parts of the Hind and the remaining American personnel, then took off and also headed south. The Chinook hauling the Hind had to stop twice to refuel, each time landing at a friendly base where the C-130 tanker awaited.
After taking off from the second refueling point, the Chinook had to race to stay ahead of a 3,000-foot-tall sandstorm. The Chinooks arrived at N'Djamena in near-zero visibility and touched down safely.
They waited 20 minutes for the storm to clear, and then they and their precious cargo were loaded aboard two C-5 Galaxies for the journey to the United States. The mission had taken 67 hours to complete in Chad and was a complete success.
The Libyans knew nothing of it. The Americans had their hands on the latest Soviet attack helicopter.
As to what became of the craftily obtained Hind, it is in a secret US government warehouse, Hangar 51.