62 Vol. 9 / No. 12/ December/January 2017/18 Global Aviator
The Ukrainian Independent
Helicopter Brigade, the “Fighting Bees”,
is situated on the country’s western
border. The unit was established in
1981 during the days of the USSR it
was originally known as the 119th
Independent Helicopter Regiment.
After the formation of Ukraine and
the accompanying reorganisation of
the armed forces, the unit became
the 3rd Brigade or 3rd Regiment
up until 25th December 2012 and it
was as such that they participated
in their first UN missions. The long
list of deployments reaches from UN
Protection Force 1995-1996 via UN
Confidence Restoration Operation
(UNCRO) in Croatia 1995-1998 and
KFOR in Kosovo 1999-2001 to the UN
mission in Sierra-Leone 2001-2005. As
from the end of UNOCI (Cote de Ivory)
they have been involved with two
peacekeeping missions simultaneously,
both in Africa - MONUSCO and
UNMIL (Liberia). Within these two
operations the deployment in Liberia
has become something of a permanent
nature having lasted for more than aDuring several visits to the 16th Independent Helicopter
Brigade, Army Aviation in Brody (OBr AA) close to the city
of Lviv, the 18th OBr AA at Poltava, the 12th OBr AA at Novy
Kalyniv and the 11th OBr AA at Kherson, I was able to form an
impression regarding challenges being faced by the Ukrainian
army aviators. For many years part of UN deployments in
Africa, since the beginning of ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation)
in 2014 they have been permanently stationed in the east
of the Ukraine and on the border line to the Crimea.In the Ukraine, Army air crews are specialised in flying the Mi-24 & Mi-8. Here two crew members at
Brody just before entering their Mi-24.Military bases