A file picture taken on March 18, 2009 shows a Tigre helicopter of the French air force flying in Gap, southeastern France, during the multinational helicopters exercices Gap 09. France is dispatching attack helicopters to take part in its operations against Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi's military assets, French daily Le Figaro reported on May 23, 2011.
Fearsome helicopter gunships, able to hunt and kill at close quarters at night and over battle-scarred cities, will significantly escalate the air war in Libya.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters Friday that the campaign in Libya was entering a "new phase" and the deployment of helicopters was "part of the process of turning up the pressure" on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"Now there are signs that the momentum against Gadhafi is really building," Mr. Cameron said. "We know that we're on the right side, we're doing the right thing, the pressure is telling."
The dozen French Tigre and a similar number of British Apache attack helicopters - bristling with Hellfire missiles and nose-mounted cannon capable of destroying tanks and chasing gunmen down alleyways from above - also bring new risks to the mission.
NATO commanders, including Canada's Air Force Lieutenant-General Charlie Bouchard, who is running the air war, have been hobbled by the lack of combat warplanes capable of flying low and slow and attacking in the close confines of urban spaces, such as the embattled city of Misrata where rebels and fighters loyal to Col. Gadhafi have been waging a bloody seesaw battle.
Two months of daily bombing - albeit hardly a "shock and awe" campaign - has so far failed to topple Col. Gadhafi, and the military ineptness of the ill-equipped and ill-trained rebel forces have left the ground war in stalemate.
Helicopter gunships may help.
The Tigres and Apaches, expected to fly from the British warship Ocean and the French carrier Tonnerre cruising off the Libyan coast, are designed to wage just that sort of warfare.
While the Tigres and Apaches may tip the military balance in favour of the rebels - especially in Misrata - they also bring new vulnerabilities.
Libya's old and ill-maintained air defences have largely been destroyed, allowing Canada's CF-18 Hornets, British Typhoons and French Mirages to fly bombing missions in relative safety. But fast, high-flying combat jets are no use against urban snipers or mercenaries in Toyotas mounted with heavy machine guns in narrow city streets where a 250-kilogram laser-guided bomb, even if it hits the target, will destroy half the block and kill innocent civilians.
The attack helicopters can wage precise urban war but are vulnerable to shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles. Libya has hundreds of those small, portable missiles. But a loss over hostile area controlled by forces loyal to Col. Gadhafi could create political nightmares, especially if the crew were captured and held hostage.
A case in point: the now-infamous "Black Hawk Down" incident - in which the bodies of U.S. airmen were dragged by angry Muslim mobs through dusty Mogadishu streets, leading to America's pullout from Somalia, leaving it a still-failed state two decades later.
With an intensified bombing campaign targeting the regime's compounds and key locations in Tripoli, and the newly arrived helicopter gunships providing close air support to rebel fighters in contested cities, the escalation of the Libyan air war may hasten Col. Gadhafi's ouster, even as Western political leaders insist that isn't a military objective.
Col. Gadhafi is reportedly moving from one hospital to another in Tripoli, knowing NATO warplanes won't bomb hospitals.