[2] Following two attacks with rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in 1974 and 1976, the introduction by the South Armagh Brigade of M60 machine guns raised its level of firepower.

[1] In February 1978, in the follow-up of a shooting between British troops and IRA members, a Gazelle helicopter crashed when its pilot attempted to avoid machine-gun fire, killing a Royal Green Jackets Lieutenant Colonel on board.

[4] In yet another incident, an RAF Wessex was hit nine times over Croslieve mountain, west of Forkhill, in 1982, by rounds fired from an M60 and a .50 Browning machine gun, allegedly recovered by the IRA from an Allied aircraft that crashed on Lough Neagh during World War II.

[6] The Libyan shipments of weapons for the IRA in the mid-1980s included 18 DShKs 12.7mm machine guns, which further enhanced the anti-aircraft capabilities of the South Armagh Brigade.

[7] Another incident occurred on 20 February 1990, when an IRA team composed of at least 20 volunteers attempted to attack a helicopter at Newtownhamilton, but their efforts were thwarted when a van, a car, and several masked men manning a light machine gun were spotted by an RAF Wessex on a reconnaissance mission.

After a hot pursuit in which some vehicles and some IRA volunteers escaped, three of the men were tracked to Silverbridge, where the Wessex landed three soldiers and two Royal Ulster Constabulary constables.

The barrack buster, fired from the back of a local baker's delivery van, exploded on the helipad shortly after the pilot had managed to take off.

[10][11] On 23 September 1993,[12] approximately at 2:00 pm, members of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade deployed five armed trucks in different positions around the Crossmaglen barracks.

[12] On board the Puma was the 3rd Infantry Brigade Commander, who was paying a visit to different bases in a farewell trip to the soldiers at the end of their operational tour.

Two of the trucks headed east along Newry Road and a 12-mile chase ensued, amid a fierce exchange of gunfire; one of the helicopters was hit and forced to disengage, according to republican sources.

At this point Lynx 1, which had come back to base to muster troops, landed eight soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, who engaged the van with small arms fire.

[18] Six months later, on 20 March and 12 July 1994, the IRA in South Armagh managed to shoot down one British Army Lynx and one RAF Puma with home-made mortars.