A la Chasse!

A sight to remember as "Crazy 22" joins its sister ship "Crazy 21" at the helicopter start gates of Lučko Airfield, Croatia. In town to participate in the multinational Jackal Stone 12 military exercise, both machines belong to the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment - the fabled "Night Stalkers" - and represent a whopping 7% of the entire MH-47G fleet (indeed, friends in the States assure me wholeheartedly that seeing two at once - and in regular operation - is an incredible rarity). Itself an upgrade of the earlier MH-47E, the G model has benefited from the former's combat experience in Afghanistan, and includes more powerful engines, a new avionics architecture system - and a matte black paintjob that's a pain to shoot in anything other than low-light conditions...