Blackhawk Downed Secret Projects via Ares It’s not uncommon for U.S. military forces to destroy an aircraft downed in a foreign land, but U.S. Special Forces had particular cause to blow up the ill-fated helo that participated in Sunday’s raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. Apparently, it was a secret stealth helicopter, the design of which U.S. military commanders would not be keen to share with the Pakistanis or anyone else.
For analysis we turn to Bill Sweetman over at Aviation Week’s Ares blog, who knows much about such things:
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New Stealth Nano-Paint Turns Any Aircraft Into a Radar-Evading Stealth PlaneTagsTechnology, Clay Dillow, aviation, blackhawk, military, osama bin laden, stealthIt was a secretly developed stealth helicopter, probably a highly modified version of an H-60 Blackhawk. Photos published in the Daily Mail and on the Secret Projects board show that the helicopter's tail features stealth-configured shapes on the boom and tip fairings, swept stabilizers and a "dishpan" cover over a non-standard five-or-six-blade tail rotor. It has a silver-loaded infra-red suppression finish similar to that seen on some V-22s.
The special ops team succeeded in destroying the critical technology, though the tailboom survived (it ended up outside the compound wall). It’s from this that many journalists and defense wonks were trying--with much trouble--to identify the downed aircraft.
But, as Sweetman notes, the images from Pakistan do answer some questions about Sunday’s raid. While we may not get the details on exactly what technologies the modified Blackhawks were packing, we do now have a pretty good idea of why Pakistani air defenses didn’t see them coming.
[Ares]
Previous Article: DARPA May Have Created the World's First Decent Video Search Tool Next Article: Did the Secret 'Beast of Kandahar' Drone Provide Aerial Recon for SEAL Team Six? 11 Comments Link to this comment Bushmaster6.8 05/03/11 at 2:38 pmI would love to see the rest of this thing intact. Also, flying low and fast helps to avoid enemy radar.
Link to this comment Craiglsj 05/03/11 at 2:43 pmWere they flying in whisper mode?
Link to this comment JoCoGuy 05/03/11 at 2:56 pmI dont know about this....were are the burn marks...or soot? even if the tail piece were to be blown up and over the 10 foot wall....it would have at least soot all over it. And grass/ dirt from the crash landing....
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Vega_Obscura 05/03/11 at 3:05 pm Doesn't look like a Comanche...
Link to this comment tim-graf 05/03/11 at 3:41 pmInteresting, there has been some work with NASA in regards to making the UH-60 more stealthy. I wonder of this is some of the results from their work.
I can't include the URL but just Google for "nasa" "uh-60", and "stealth" and you'll find some articles.
Of course the fact that it malfunctioned doesn't bode well.
Link to this comment
BootcampLights 05/03/11 at 3:51 pm Very similar to our helicopter...
Link to this comment Nixx8483A 05/03/11 at 4:49 pmCould it have been a MH-53 Pave Low
Link to this comment Navy1270 05/03/11 at 6:10 pm@Vega_Obscura
Well, for sure it isn't. That program was cancelled in the middle of the 90s. I'd like to see this fully intact too, but to me, this almost doesn't look real. It looks like it was from Halo Reach or something.
Geawiel 05/03/11 at 7:09 pm @Craiglsj:
Actually...there are helicopters out there now (since at least the early 90's actually) for the US military that are 100% quiet. They just a few feet from you and you wouldn't hear them.
Link to this comment Troyabot 05/03/11 at 9:47 pmIf this helicopter is indeed a stealth type of helicopter then how would we explain the comments made by a Pakistani man who twitted about hearing helicopters flying and landing in the night that Bin Laden was killed.
Link to this comment drchuck1 05/04/11 at 3:42 amthere is no such thing as wisper mode, you can take steps to quiet a helicopter or stealth aircraft but they will never be quiet, that is 2 of the reasons they fly mostly at night, your eyes and ears can still spot them, nice to not hear from the unpatriotic commenters bashing the US, a little embarassed are they?
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