Copter chatter on bin Laden raid
Hover over the red squares to read more about the UH-60 Black Hawk heliocopter and the downed helicopter used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound (right).
Photos of the wreckage of one of the helicopters used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound has fueled speculation that the aircraft used was a new kind of stealth helicopter, the existence of which was not publicly known. U.S. government and military officials have refused to comment on the subject, but aviation experts have speculated that the Navy SEALs who executed the raid and killed bin Laden arrived in two stealth helicopters that were likely modifications of the existing UH-60 model of Black Hawk helicopter used by the U.S. army, navy and air force. A spokesman for Sikorsky, which makes the Black Hawk, referred all questions about stealth aircraft to the U.S. Special Operations Command.
One of the choppers used in the raid crashed during the operation and was subsequently blown up by the SEALs. Military experts speculate that this was done to prevent anyone from getting their hands on the helicopter parts and technology and selling them to foreign countries, such as China, which is rumoured to be developing its own stealth aircraft. A part of the tail of the helicopter survived the blast, and that is what the chatter about the "stealth" aspects of the aircraft has focused on. Military aviation enthusiasts who have examined the widely disseminated photos of the wreckage, which included the tail mount, or boom, rotor and horizontal stabilizers, insist it bears the hallmarks of a stealth aircraft but none that match any existing helicopter, or at least not one that is widely known about. They also point to the fact that the aircraft was not detected by Pakistani authorities as more evidence that it had some advanced stealth components.
The UH-60 Black Hawk, which has been in use since 1979 and is often called the "workhorse" of the U.S. forces, is the helicopter that many see as the likely model for a stealth aircraft that could have been used in the raid. The MH-60, which is the Black Hawk model currently used in special operations and is a modified, heavier version of the UH-60, has also been cited as a possibility. Aviation experts have also referred to the raid helicopter as a possible descendent of the RAH-66 Comanche stealth helicopter that was being developed by the U.S. military in the 1990s before the project was shelved in 2004.
The image above shows a standard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and a piece of the wreckage found at the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the U.S. raid occurred.
Source: Helicopter illustration artwork by Ugo Crisponi http://www.AviationGraphic.com / David Cenciotti http://www.cencio4.wordpress.com
