Crashed Helicopter Sparks Concern Over Stealth Secrets

Hugh Pickens writes "The crash of a helicopter involved in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideout has prompted intense speculation about whether the aircraft was specially modified to fly stealthily — and whether its remains could offer hostile governments clues to sensitive US military technology. Remnants of the helicopter, including a nearly intact piece of its tail, suggested that the aircraft involved in the raid wasn't the typical Black Hawk flown by special-operations forces. Aviation experts who scrutinized photos of the scene say the tail had unusual features that suggested the helicopter had been extensively modified to fly quietly, while appearing less visible to radar. 'The odds are fair — based on my knowledge of the subject area — the vast majority of the special MH-60s aircraft were purpose-built to make those aircraft as stealthy as they could possibly be,' says aviation expert Jay Miller, adding that the remnants of the aircraft suggested extensive use of nonmetallic composite parts, which reflect less radar energy. Experts also say the tail rotor's design suggested an effort to reduce the 'acoustic signature' (video) of the helicopters to make them fly more quietly."

Comments

Cutting edge

[Dan East]

The key factor is that this mission was so important - even the President was personally involved in its planned - that the very best, most advanced technology available would have been employed. If there are secret helicopters and eavesdropping equipment and spy gadgets, then they would have been employed for this. I think the design (5 blade), material and aerodynamic shape of the tail rotors would be the biggest thing up for grabs after this incident. It also makes me wonder if China, Russia, etc, have their act together enough to quickly place buyers in Pakistan to purchase whatever photos, or even actual pieces of the wreckage, they can. One thing is for sure, China and Russia are very good at reverse engineering.

Re:Cutting edge

[poity]

Yes, security among nations perhaps, but not security for people in totalitarian states. If Libya had better tech to defend against NATO, that country would probably be at "peace" right now in the sense that no nation would bother its sovereignty, but it would have a few hundred thousand less of its people, and harsher lives for those who remain. If either of their histories is any indication, Russia and China are indeed totalitarian states not too far removed from Libya in their stance towards dissent. What a wonderful peace for people of the world to look forward to.

Re:Hardly secret or surprising

[Zeek40]

If we only found damaged parts of that police car, and it was used to capture or kill one of the FBI's most wanted, and none of those parts were found in any other known production vehicle, then yes, there would be controversy over what the vehicle was.

Re:tweets

[Daniel Phillips]

the author from the blog where I found the image of what could be the "stealth hawk" have a interesting theory: To ensure they got to the house without being noticed by the Pakistanis, it is possible that the Chinnoks were also stealth versions.

Standing off some distance and being more easily detected would also have been something of a diversion.

On the other hand...

[Anonymous Coward]

Another view is that by the time the military is allowing "advanced tech" to be seen in theater or in public, it is already far enough along the lifecycle that we don't care if it is divulged. I.e. the F-117 was already an obsolete machine when it was lost in Serbia, and perhaps this helicopter was also similarly obsolete before it got picked for a very high profile mission.

We probably wouldn't risk exposure of real secret stuff unless our backs were against a wall, and long-term strategic release of info is no longer a basis for decisions (think World War 3, not anti-terror skirmish #582). But recall, even in World War 2, the lore says that tactical losses allowed to fail in order to protect strategic secrets... there is rarely a situation so dire that strategy is off the table.

Re:It looks like a stealth assassination copter.

[CyberDruid]

That twitter guy who became famous for live-tweeting the raid when he was annoyed by a helicopter certainly seemed to have heard it.

Re:The reason it crashed too?

[ktappe]

2 special Black Hawks for insertion, two standard Chinooks lifted the Team, gear, and swag.

And that would explain why a neighbor a good distance away was (unwittingly) Tweeting about the operation. He probably didn't hear the stealthy insertion but the Chinooks used for extraction make a boatload of noise and annoyed the piss out of him and everyone else a decent radius around there.