Stealth Blackhawk helicopter

[Disgustipated]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-s...-program-revealed-osama-bin/story?id=13530693

So let's discuss this new stealth helicopter. I know there isn't much to discuss at present moment, but we can at least discuss the implications of losing the tail section to Pakistan. They should have placed explosives on the tail too, as the explosion of the main body appeared to have blown the tail off intact.

How was this kept secret for so long? It seems that with the stealth fighter and stealth bomber we knew about it long before they ever saw any action. Although the article says there have been stealth Comanche's in the 90's. I was unaware of this. I guess I'm not as up on military tech as I thought I was.

Before an elite team of U.S. Navy SEALs executed a daring raid that took down Osama bin Laden, the commandos were able to silently sneak up on their elusive target thanks to what aviation analysts said were top secret, never-before-seen stealth-modified helicopters.

In the course of the operation that cost the al Qaeda leader his life, one of the two Blackhawk helicopters that carried the SEALs into bin Laden's Pakistani compound grazed one of the compound's wall and was forced to make a hard landing. With the chopper inoperable, at the end of the mission the SEALs destroyed it with explosives.

But photos of what survived the explosion -- the tail section of the craft with curious modifications -- has sent military analysts buzzing about a stealth helicopter program that was only rumored to exist. From a modified tail boom to a noise reducing covering on the rear rotors and a special high-tech material similar to that used in stealth fighters, former Department of Defense official and vice president of the Lexington Institute Dan Goure said the bird is like nothing he's ever seen before.

"This is a first," he said. "You wouldn't know that it was coming right at you. And that's what's important, because these are coming in fast and low, and if they aren't sounding like they're coming right at you, you might not even react until it's too late... That was clearly part of the success."

In addition to the noise-reducing modifications, a former special operations aviator told The Army Times the general shape of what was left of the craft -- the harsh angles and flat surfaces more common to stealth jets -- was further evidence it was a modified variant of the Blackhawk.

A senior Pentagon official told ABC News the Defense Department would "absolutely not" comment on anything relating to the destroyed bird.

Neighbors of bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, told ABC News they didn't hear the helicopters the night of the Sunday raid until they were directly overhead. The rotor covering, along with a special rotor design, suppressed the choppers noise while inbound, Bill Sweetman, editor and chief of Defense Technology International, said.

"Helicopters make a very distinctive percussive rotor sound which is caused by their rotor blades and if you can blend that down, of course that makes a noise that is much less likely to be heard and much more likely to blend into any background noise that there is," Sweetman said.

The U.S. has attempted to use stealth helicopters before. In the mid-90s, the Army developed several prototypes of the Comanche helicopter, a reconnaissance helicopter that was at the time a revolutionary step in stealth technology. But in 2004 the Department of Defense scrapped the program and promised to used technology developed for the Comanche on other crafts.

Since, the government has been working to silence the Army's Blackhawk helicopters but an official program for the stealth choppers was never publicized. The wreckage, Sweetman said, is the first the public has ever seen of an operational stealth-modified helicopter.

Goure said he believes the stealthy Blackhawks have been in use for years without the public's knowledge.

"We probably have been running hundreds of missions with these helicopters over the last half dozen years, and the fact is, they've all been successful -- or at least the helicopters have all come back," he said.

But now that one went down and photographs emerged of large sections being taken from the crash site under a tarp, former White House counterterrorism advisor and ABC News consultant Richard Clarke said U.S. officials may have reason to worry about where those parts end up.

"There are probably people in the Pentagon tonight who are very concerned that pieces of the helicopter may be, even now, on their way to China, because we know that China is trying to make stealth aircraft," he said. The Chinese military is known to have a close relationship with the Pakistani military.

I hate to see this technology go to China. But I guess you can say *expletive* happens. If you are going to use technology, you have to be prepared to lose it. The only alternative is to keep it under wraps the entire time which nullifies its usefulness.

 

[Iosubx51983]

This kind of reminds me of that other insident that happend in the 80's with the F-117 being seen over the nevada desert.(I think.) When I look at the videos and photos of the wreakage. My first assumption is either a teething problem with the Rotray engine (hince the smoke coming from the top part of the chopper.) CNN had this amination on several times, that was my first thought. The other is that it MIGHT have gotten shot at by a RPG or some other smallarms fire. My dad says it looks like it was built with some kind of carbon fiber material, to deflect radar signals. If that is the case it's not suprising that it was compermised in that way, because from what my father tells me that the material is not that durable to that kind of damage. Again I don't know, if I had to bet on one it have to be the former, rather than the latter. This has been a problem with us made helicopters for years ever since vietnam. I remember seeing a program on Discover Wings channel about the attack chopper that was flown by a test pliot and please clear this up if you watched the program of not, it had problems with the engine and crashed. The test pilot was killed (I think.) That chopper was mothballed in favor of the AH-64 Apache Gunship, if I'm not mistaken. Does anyone know what that chopper was that was designed by either lockheed or Northorp Grunman. All I know that the chopper was designed at the "skunkworks" that went aginst the AH-64 in testing. Thats what I saw in the TV Program.

 

[illram]

Looks like Captain America's extra shield. After successfully killing Osama, he did not need it so he blew up the helicopter and left.

 

[Iosubx51983]

 

[Disgustipated]

It is Captain America's shield.

So I wonder where the tail section is now. The seals shouldn't have left it like that. They should have used a second round of explosives.

 

[emzie]

If the US was actively flying these choppers, their replacements are already well into development. It's like the Chinese receiving F117 parts: yes it sucked to lose that edge, but it's ultimately stuff we developed a decade ago.

 

[Iosubx51983]

This is like when the chinese got a hold of the heatseeker missile we had during the 60's. Now everyone has that type of missile technology. My country has a very bad habit and record for losing this type of cutting edge military stuff, by accsident or otherwise during the cold war. Like I said to my father, sell this stuff to the europeans and japan. The news already revealed it. So the U.S. could probloby make some money by selling this stuff. I can almost garantee that the next one is already in the testing stage. I mean we did it with the heatseeker missles. Just a thought.

 

[Iosubx51983]

Quick in, Quick out. I do commend the navy seals for this, to me if there names are ever mentioned when I'm old and gray. I would like to see them get the medal of honor for this. They don't get enough credit for doing stuff like this, even if they are ever captured or heaven forbid killed. I think while losing the sealth blackhawk to the world might be embarassing for the U.S., I don't want to see my of the spec ops soldiers captured or killed. So you lose the secret blackhawk, BIG DEAL. You can replace sealth choppers but you can't replace the boots (Soldiers),
if you lose experenced troops, in my opinion is much more damaging to a military (in any country). Look what happened to the Luftwaffe in WWII for example. Manpower always trumps technology, that's my opinion.

 

[Abaddon]

I look forward to official release of images of this chopper, will it be as cool as the stealth bomber???

 

[MobBoss]

I look forward to official release of images of this chopper, will it be as cool as the stealth bomber???

I dont think so. Odds are its just a further modified MH-60L or MH-60K with extra molding to cut its radar signature and noise level down. It probably lost lift the way it did due to all the extra weight that stuff adds to the dang thing.

 

[Iosubx51983]

But it still got into pakistan and the other choppers got out of pakistan with out being shot down. It came very close to the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. So I think it would be like russia or china landing spec ops troops in Baltimore or Annapolis with the same technology and doing an assassination mission on a military or polititcal opponent that they didn't like (why send millions of troops to occupy the U.S. and kill a lot gun toting rednecks like in that youtube video I saw, and lose thousands of your own troops, material, and money when you could just take out the head of state or part of a cruical military head of the pentagon, and create as much chaos in the organization or nation you would to this to. That is what I'm thinking about. We wouldn't even know about it until it was too late. Then we would lose the morale of the people, troops, moneybackers, and they would have plossable dinileability, or in other words they would say "But I didn't do it!"(Yeah RIGHT), and they would use this as a proaganda tool for there own country or organization, to raly there own people, troops, and moneybackers.

 

[GoodGame]

If the US was actively flying these choppers, their replacements are already well into development.

Maybe so, maybe not.

 

[peter grimes]

...it would be like russia or china landing spec ops troops in Baltimore or Annapolis with the same technology and doing an assassination mission on a military or polititcal opponent that they didn't like...

Only if one assumes that China has a miliary base in Hagerstown. The USA is unique in the world in that it demands base access outside of its borders while prohibiting foreign military bases within its borders.

What's good for the goose is decidely NOT good for the gander!

 

[Iosubx51983]

It's not HAVING A military base in the U.S. that frightens me, it is that sometime in the next 50 to 75 years someone or some country in the world ally or not, or in this country for that matter, someone sometime is going to have a STEALTH AIRCRFT CARRIER (kind like the one that carry the Harrier Jets) that they can hide off the east coast in international waters. If you watch the James Bond Movie "Tommorow Never Dies" they have a stealth ship that they used in the movie (I don't know what it is they used), someone could refine the technology to make it more efficent and cheaper to produce and make(Like the F-22 Raptor).
Like I said I hope this never happens to the U.S., Japan was going to do something like this with the subs that hid a kamakazze plane inside the sub itself(I need clarifaction on this) in 1945.

 

[peter grimes]

I think your fears are irrational.

Have you read the National Strategic Narrative by "Mr. Y"?

 

[Iosubx51983]

No, but a piece of paper or intelligence docs don't forsee, contain, or devert a determimed enemy from doing this kind of stuff. I can't help but to think about what happened to the navy in pearl harbor in 1941. We had the intelligence capability and broke the japanese naval code and diplomatic code in mid to late spring of that same year. I always say to myself that "you should never underestimate your foes and their determination to destroy you". We thought the japanese were inferior and look what happened. Underestimating china, russia, or any other nation or organization for that matter useaully leeds to a catastophe for the nation that thinks it is "invinsible". I watched a program on the history channel on the tactics of Sun Tzu and it got to think on this and what happened during the last week in pakistan.

 

[Cutlass]

You can't "stealth" an aircraft carrier.

 

[Iosubx51983]

I wish that was the case, BUT it could happen in the next 50 to 100 years. Ther Technology of computers and military weapons and equipment are advancing at an alarming rate. To think that we won't have something like this is not impossible. If there is a willpower and money to develop and perfect this kind of ship technology it will happen in the next 2 to 3 generations of humantiy from now. NOTHING is impossible, NOTHING we or the world CAN'T DO if they put resources, manpower, and money behind something like this. I know I sound like a "doom and gloom" person, but history has always shown that whoever does something like this, it will be remembered and then forgotten after about 2 to 3 generations of humans has passed to history. Humantiy dosent's learn from there own history, and are doomed to repeat it. I mean if you see or read the old Jules Verne novels or movies, they thought they would not put a man on the moon, or have a submerine, and aircraft. It happend in about the same time spand of generations of humanity. Just my two cents.

 

[Abaddon]

rofflecopter indeed.

 

[Iosubx51983]

Everybody knows U.S. technology is a joke. If only because they used too much of the same type of designs and engineers from the Germans after WWII. The Tiger I was a FLOP in my opinion, because it was a gas gullzzer, immobile, and if you hit in the A$$ it would become a ronson cigerette lighter. To me the M1 Abrams is bascally a more modern version of the Tiger I, except it is vulnerable in the same spot as the Tiger I, in the A$$, Iraq proved this.