'Nuther Black Helicopter

Yeah, I know. They don't exist:

but here:

files.abovetopsecret.com...

seen't over my house often. This particular configuration is the ground sweep model. Looking for errata locations.

Watch yourself, you never know...

I keep seeing them, at first they were rare but now I see at least one almost every day.

Thats in Northwest England, between Liverpool and Manchester..
whats going on at all?

It's a UH-60 Blackhawk, and it's probably not black. They're painted dark green that from a distance appears black. The US military paints very low visibility markings on theirs. The only black ones are Customs and they're painted with gold stripes on them. This one APPEARS to be a medevac. There is something painted behind the door, which is where the military puts the red cross on them.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
It's a UH-60 Blackhawk, and it's probably not black. They're painted dark green that from a distance appears black. The US military paints very low visibility markings on theirs. The only black ones are Customs and they're painted with gold stripes on them. This one APPEARS to be a medevac. There is something painted behind the door, which is where the military puts the red cross on them.

//ahem// ..

I don't think you're understanding the namesake of the vehicle.

They're "black" helicopters .. as in "black ops" ... not necessarily "black in terms of the color of paint used on the siding".

-

And most of these threads ARE talking about the paint, but even if it's talking about it being "black" I can tell you from that picture it's not. The spec ops/black birds have obvious modifications to them that this one doesn't have.

Yeah, well they took out the windows.

Black Hawks are known for wide target assesment. And, they put a tint on them tinier ones.

Could be black-green, for night landing. They wouldn't stop at my lemonade stand so I could get a better picture.

Seriously, though, Black Hawk helicopters have serious armament capability. Must be the mid-air support group, that hops in via Mission Impossible 2 style...

Serious armament capability? A BLACKHAWK? In Hollywood maybe. A UH-60 carries either a pair of M60 machine guns (which are being exchanged for M240s), or a pair of M134 miniguns. They have a mine dispersal system for antitank mines that they sometimes use, but those are the ONLY weapons they carry.

[edit on 5/7/2008 by Zaphod58]

reply to post by Zaphod58


I'm going to refer you to a Wikipedia page. Yes, I know its wiki and therefore of questionable reliability, but the sources can be delved into for concrete proof.

Wiki link on armed transport helos

I havent quite figured out how to quote an external source so it appears in its own cool little box, but here is a bit from that wiki page:

ESSS
The External Stores Support System (ESSS) provides two stub wings each with two hard points for primarily for external fuel tanks, but can also be used to carry various weapon systems. When equipped with the Extended Range Fuel System (ERFS), the system can support two 230 gallon or 450 gallon external tanks. The system only feeds into the main fuel tank, not the engines directly.[66] The ESSS can also be fitted with a wide range of weapons including up to sixteen AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, rockets and gun pods, and other systems.[67]


Here is a better, more reliable link:

Janes

and a pic with 16 hellfire anti-tank missiles:



Further, the medevac models generally have a large red cross on the bottom, a smaller one on the nose, and one on each door, not behind since having one behind the dorrs would become obscured when the doors were open. These markings should have been visible in the pic provided at the least a big white splotch would have been visible on the bottom.

After a photoshop zoom I can make out no stub wings (and therefore no external stores), so I'd venture to say this particular blackhawk was nothing more than a routine flight.

What I wonder is how the OP determined this was a "black" helicopter and not an ordinary standard military issue blackhawk. and what exactly is a ground sweep configuration, what equipment differentiates a run-of-the-mill blackhawk from a ground sweep configuration.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by Coshy]

[edit on 7-5-2008 by Coshy]

Look, a Black Hawk has armored plexi-glass. To see approaching ground fire.

Tough, touch the photo: Morons. It ain't there right now. Jesus H.

And who the Hell arms a damn thing they say is a Green Martian Lander to begin with.

Black Hawk's are configurable, also noteworthy, to transport a full compliment of support; yeah, about 6 heavily armed, or a squad of 11 infantry.

Get your damned config.s right.

God Almighty. Wunder duff.

Folks, I live literaly 2.1 miles from Sikorsky. I watch them test fly day and night. I have seen at least 8 differant variants with all types of dummy hardware on them to test fesability. The pic listed is a standard Blackhawk.
They all are painted and very dark green when they leave the factory.
Zindo

Wooops! except for the Presidential Variants, Those of course are green and white, They are built and maintained here also!

[edit on 5/8/2008 by ZindoDoone]