NICARAGUA SAID TO SEEK MORE SOVIET HELICOPTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 7, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490002-3
ON PAGE fk :11)
7 April 1987
Nicaragua Said to Seek
More Soviet Helicopters
Special to The
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, April 6 -
Nicar is 2210 with So et non to a icors
ia,ant c oat on o increasing warfare.
Government last month installed a new
air force commander. He is Lieut. Col.
Javier Pichardo Ramirez, formerly
military chief in the western provinces
of Leon and Chinandega.
According to diplomats, rebels now
inside Nicaragua include sappers
trained in the United States to attack
targets that copld include helicopters
on the ground. The Sandinista army
has formed a new unit with the specific
mission of protecting parked helicop-
ters.
l=?
Diplomats and military specialists
said the Russians are likely to send
'Nicaragua 10 to 20 MI-17 helicopters in
the coming months.
It would be at least the third ship-
ment of helicopters that Nicaragua has
received. The first arrived early in 1985
-and a second last May and June. Ac-
cording to Pentagon officials, still an-
other shipment arrived last October.
The helicopters include both MI-17'
s
and MI-24 gunships. Although not as
defastating as the MI-24, the MI-17 is
considered highly effective and can
carry up to 32 men at speeds of over
150 miles per hour.
According to military and diplomatic
sources in Managua, the Sandinistas
have a total of 40 to 50 helicopters, most
of- them MI-17's. Pentagon officials
fiave put the number at 57.
Talks in Moscow Reported
Negotiations over the new helicop-
ters, which are said to be taking place
in Moscow, come as more than 10,000
United States-backed rebels are be-
lieved to have infiltrated into Nicara-
gua from bases in Honduras.
The rebels, known as contras, are
regularly receiving supplies by clan-
destine airdrops overseen by the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.
Helicopters are a vital part of the
Sandinista Government's strategy to
blunt the growing contra drive.
The arrival of new helicopters would
further tilt the military balance in
favor of the Government, but could
cause some political difficulty,
"In Washington, this will be held up
as proof of the incurable militarism of
the Sandinistas," a European diplomat
said. "Nicaragua's neighbors in Cen-
tral America will love it. They Will say
it proves their point." '
President Daniel Ortega Saavedra
said Friday that the Nicaraguan con-
flict was entering "a truly dramatic
and decisive moment." He said
feared President Reagan might try use Nicaragua as a place to win a new
political and military victory.
"He would be able to say to the
American people, 'We wiped out the
Sandinista Government and installed a
democratic government,' and people
would applaud,"' Mr. Ortega told a
group of visiting Americans.
Mr. Ortega's office did not respond to
inquiries about the reported negotia-
tions in Moscow, nor did the Defense
Ministry. The Government normally
does not comment on military acquisi-
tions.
As the Sandinista air force takes an
ever-increasing role in the fighting, the
By STEPHEN KINZER
New York Times
Rebels Setting Ambushes
The contras are also making special
efforts to shoot down helicopters while
they are flying. Military specialists say
contra teams with antiaircraft weap-
ons are setting ambushes along flight
paths normally used by Government.
helicopters:
"The copters provide an immense
superiority in firepower and are the
most versatile weapon the army has"'
a military officer said. "Aerial patrols
have been reduced out of fear of an-
tiaircraft guns, but the copters are still
the key to the overall military strat-
egy.,.
Sandinista helicopters can bring
heavy fire to bear on contra units and
can move men and equipment quickly,
to battle zones. But they are not
equipped to intercept clandestine sup-.
ply missions flown for the contras in
close collaboration with American ad-
visers.
On radar screens, Sandinista sol-
diers can spot many of the unmarked
cargo planes that penetrate Nicara-;
guan airspace under cover of darkness:
to drop food, ammunition and money to
groups of contras. But they often can
not respond, since Nicaragua has no
fighter planes.
U.S. Warning on Planes
The Sandinistas have tried to obtain
jet fighters from the Soviet Union and
other countries, but have found no one
willing to provide them. The ' United
States has warned that it will destroy
such fighters on the ground if Nicara-
gua ever receives them.
Diplomats who monitor the contras
said planes were now dropping sup-
plies to them three or four times a
week. They said the flights originate
from the Palmerola military air base
in Honduras and from a secret installa-
tion in the Swan Islands off Hondnraa
In recent weeks, contra demolition
units have begun blowing up electric
power lines in Nicaragua, and targets
such as bridges and police stations are
expected to be attacked in the coming
months. But it is widely agreed that
helic dpters would be the most spectac-
ular targets to destroy.
"The contras will be going on the of-
fensive against the copters," a diplo-
mat said. "They are not just going to
sit and wait for them."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490002-3