Bin Laden Raid May Have Exposed Stealth helicopter

You read this on aviation week previously undisclosed, classified stealth helicopter apparently was part of the U.S. task force that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 1.
Does anyone know which helicopter went down?
www.aviationweek.com.../awx/2011/05/03/awx_05_03_2011_p0-318248.xml&headline=Bin%20Laden%20Ra id%20May%20Have%20Exposed%20Stealth%20Helicopter

Here is the quote but this in search bar
Bin Laden Raid May Have Exposed Stealth

hope it works

Link is broken. Could you add a quote from the site or fix the link?

The link is broken. Is there another link you could use?

Not sure what has happened to link i have just copied and pasted the link i have just posted it works ok when pasted in addres bar

FIXED LINK

EDIT TO ADD: Never mind you fixed it.

Cool story, was expecting something completely new and wild looking, I wonder what other little secrets they have up their sleeves.

reply to post by lifeissacred


Thanks how did you do that you can private message me

Your link doesn't seem to be working but the only stealth helicopter that I am aware of is the RAH-66 Comanche and to my knowledge, it is not classified. Furthermore, it is not a troop carrier, it's an attack helicopter. Even though I'm quite sure that we, the U.S., do indeed have some operational Comanches, I believe the program was canceled much like the F-22 Raptor program. I seriously doubt that there would have been a role in this particular mission that the Comanche would be best suited to carry out.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f41fe2b1def5.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by TREASONFX



Maybe thats what all the secret training mission in Miami last week was all about, training with their new helicopters to prepare for the raid on OBL. I saw several reports of people seeing helicopters that made no sound followed by black hawks and other military style helicopters that did make noise. Even if there is no silent helicopter again made the secret helicopter training in miami was training for this mission.

I was thinking about this last night. We have seen the chopper that broke down. Clearly a blackhawk, not stealthy.

To fly 120 miles through "hostile" airspace (30-40 mins at best speed) without being detected until the bullets start flying and then to get out without the foreign forces locating you once they are scrambled is astounding though.

I could only dream up one idea that would fit the story that Pakistan was not informed until the team was out of country.

Perhaps the lack of buzz about new American stealth is due to a newer style of radar defeating technology. Perhaps we have developed a system that transmits a "nothing" signal, effectively cancelling the radar waves before they bounce off the craft.

Anything else is is either in violation of observed evidence or would have tipped of Pakistan to the presence of a foreign force.

I'll be interested to hear the debates about this in the coming months and years.

There's some better photos of the "surviving" bits on the Daily Mail

Looks like a UH-60 tail section with a highly modified rotor.

reply to post by TREASONFX


From Bill Sweetman's Blog:

It 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

www.popsci.com...


Sweetman is an expert on stealth technology. If anyone could ID the unusual wreckage, it is him.

I agree with this...the first photo I saw on MSNBC I found curious.

This photo;
msnbcmedia2.msn.com...

First....Just cursory...looking at it the first time something about the material/paint looked interesting...the first pic I saw on the article was much bigger and better resolution...enough that it really stuck out to me as looking almost beautiful and futuristic in the material...not quite shiny...but ultra sleek and smooth. Now the latest pic is smaller and crappier resolution so it doesn't capture my eye like it originally did. I think they had the pic "dirtied up" for lack of a better term to not be so eye catching.

Second...why the half assed bedspread curtain wall around it? Seems kind of silly and pointless for just a MH-60 Tailboom/rotor...until you see the other pic in this thread of the rotor and tail...now makes more sense.

I think this is definitely a factual story here. Who else would have the highest tech versions of a helicopter than Seal Team 6?

Good find and good info.

The helicopter "facts" have been pretty all over the place.

Can someone tell me if the crashed helicopter in this news story (one pic is the same as the one in the link posted above) is 1.) inside the compound or outside the compound, 3.) a Black Hawk as they claimed (if it is indeed one of ours), or 4.) not ours. I've seen someone claim that it was a Pakistani helicopter?

www.bakersfield.com...

Originally posted by Fiberx
I was thinking about this last night. We have seen the chopper that broke down. Clearly a blackhawk, not stealthy.

To fly 120 miles through "hostile" airspace (30-40 mins at best speed) without being detected until the bullets start flying and then to get out without the foreign forces locating you once they are scrambled is astounding though.

I could only dream up one idea that would fit the story that Pakistan was not informed until the team was out of country.

Perhaps the lack of buzz about new American stealth is due to a newer style of radar defeating technology. Perhaps we have developed a system that transmits a "nothing" signal, effectively cancelling the radar waves before they bounce off the craft.

Anything else is is either in violation of observed evidence or would have tipped of Pakistan to the presence of a foreign force.

I'll be interested to hear the debates about this in the coming months and years.

Helo copters can easily fly under radar and most people would not assume a US invasion force was flying by when they hear one.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


It looks like it was a modified Blackhawk that crashed inside the compound, with the tail section striking the wall and falling outside the compound.

there's quite a lot of photos of it on Google now - just search for "US helicopter wreckage bin Laden"

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

Thanks for the information. I googled away, but I know nothing about helicopters, so it did me no good. Appreciate it.

I also found it interesting that the "mechanical failure" was due to the copter being too close to the high compound wall where the rotors were not able to generate enough lift, so the team was forced to scuttle the craft. Does anyone know if this is due to the purported unique characteristics of the craft where the rotors have been modified to rotate at a slower speed in order to muffle the sound of the blades?

Here you go guys here's a picture of the aft section of what appears to be the helo's fuselage!

Now to my eye I notice a couple things:

1: This beast is mostly composite: Here's why i think this if it had a metallic skin you would see "crumpling" where some of the pieces are folded under the main body that should be sitting vertically.

2. Whatever helo this was looks like it has a tail ramp: This sorta precludes a blackhawk as I don't know of any blackhawks that have tail ramps to my knowledge the only three helo's I can think of with tail ramps are the CH 46 Ch 47 ch 53. Out of all these the only one with a conventional tail assembly instead of dual rotors is the ch 53. Now another point to consider is special operations do in fact in make pretty heavy use of MH 53 pave hawk and other variants of this chopper. And if I was going to build a stealthy socom chopper i think I'd rather start with an Mh-53 instead of a blackhawk simply for the cargo capacity alone, mh 53's can fit small jeep type trucks inside in some configs.

reply to post by roguetechie


That's not the fuselage - it's just the final section of the tail boom with the tail rotor at the bottom left.

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by roguetechie

 

That's not the fuselage - it's just the final section of the tail boom with the tail rotor at the bottom left.

Exactly...growing up in aviation and now currently employed by the Air Force, it is definitely the tail.

There is a great picture rendition of what it could have look like on this website.
cencio4.wordpress.com...