Fighters against helicopters sounds like an extreme combat mismatch—but it does happen from time to time. Fighters do occasionally target rotary-wing aircraft, although this is uncommon and highly dependent on context. Most documented cases of fighter-on-helicopter combat have taken place in low-intensity conflicts or border/intercept scenarios. Fighters almost never hunt helicopters as a primary mission.

Documented and credible examples of fighters versus helicopters do exist.

During the Iran-Iraq War, fighter aircraft on both sides periodically engaged attack helicopters operating near the front lines. One example in 1980 marked the first ever combat kill for the F-14A Tomcat, when one of the aircraft in Iranian service—inherited from the Shah’s pro-Western government following the 1979 revolution—was used to shoot down an Iraqi Mil Mi-25 gunship during a border skirmish at the outset of the war.

A decade later, US fighter jets shot down multiple Iraqi Mi-24 “Hind” helicopters during the 1991 Gulf War.

In one tragic incident in 1994, US jets misidentified two US Army Black Hawk helicopters flying over northern Iraq as enemy........

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