The Helicopter That Crashed in the Bin Laden Raid Was a Secret Stealth Helicopter

I would love to see the rest of this thing intact. Also, flying low and fast helps to avoid enemy radar.

Were they flying in whisper mode?

I dont know about this....were are the burn marks...or soot? even if the tail piece were to be blown up and over the 10 foot wall....it would have at least soot all over it. And grass/ dirt from the crash landing....

Doesn't look like a Comanche...

Interesting, there has been some work with NASA in regards to making the UH-60 more stealthy. I wonder of this is some of the results from their work.

I can't include the URL but just Google for "nasa" "uh-60", and "stealth" and you'll find some articles.

Of course the fact that it malfunctioned doesn't bode well.

Very similar to our helicopter...

Could it have been a MH-53 Pave Low

@Vega_Obscura
Well, for sure it isn't. That program was cancelled in the middle of the 90s. I'd like to see this fully intact too, but to me, this almost doesn't look real. It looks like it was from Halo Reach or something.

@Craiglsj:

Actually...there are helicopters out there now (since at least the early 90's actually) for the US military that are 100% quiet. They just a few feet from you and you wouldn't hear them.

If this helicopter is indeed a stealth type of helicopter then how would we explain the comments made by a Pakistani man who twitted about hearing helicopters flying and landing in the night that Bin Laden was killed.

there is no such thing as wisper mode, you can take steps to quiet a helicopter or stealth aircraft but they will never be quiet, that is 2 of the reasons they fly mostly at night, your eyes and ears can still spot them, nice to not hear from the unpatriotic commenters bashing the US, a little embarassed are they?

Tim-Graf, I'm seeing the photos and I'm thinking that it must have been a modified UH also or something with the same rear rotor but a UAV version. Man this photo definately has be stumped. I thought I've seen it all but everyone in the UAV blogs haven't come up with a clear sign of this AUV Helo. I say that because I haven't heard any news of pilots dying during crash.

I don't like it, Hawk.

It's not very stealthy if it got shot down... It would be a better idea of they did show it to Pakistan, so if they copy it, it will fail in their battles too... Just a thought :D

Might they have been repeating the SonTay raid during Vietnam, and intentionally hard landed an older helicopter in to the compound yard to get guys inside faster then burned/blew it up and evacuated on the others.

I think the operation was called Operation Ivory Coast

@srini276 - From the reports I read, the helicopter wasn't shot down, it dropped as it was landing due to an effect called "hot and high," which refers to high temperatures and elevations that interfere with an aircraft's ability to become or remain airborne, which,
@p549rr1 - is why there were no reports of pilots dying in the crash. All aboard were reported as leaving the aircraft and continuing the mission. And successfully completing it.

@srini276...stealth doesn't hide you from the enemy you fight up close and personal, how about using a little common sense

I know what it is.

I can't say.

And I wouldn't have to kill you either. Just protection of information.

Well, it would not have been a Comanche.

The Comanche was a stealth gunship, not a utility craft like the Blackhawk or Pave Hawk/Low (whatever version they've got out now)...

There wouldn't be room on board the Comanche to ferry troops, prisoners or anyone else on it besides the pilot and gunner.

There were prisoners on the ground that likely would have been taken to Afghanistan and then the USS Carl Vinson had that helo not crash...a lot of valuable intelligence to waterboard out of (cough), I mean nicely ask from them.

I suspect it's just a modified Blackhawk using technology learned from the Comanche program. It probably does not have the highest stealth characteristics inherit in a purposefully designed stealth helicopter, but it was enough to fool the Pakistanis long enough to get in and out.

If you notice....the tail wings/foils are very close to tail rotors. I dont see them being long enough to stabilize a large chopper. Not one that they say was forced down mechanically that carried dozens of solders.If this is real...its a second ship that was downed. Shh..a secret one.

Check "Wired" Danger Room.
They have to photo from a different angle.
www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/aviation-geeks-scramble-to-i-d-osama-raids-mystery-copter/

Actually they were showing some of the new stealth helcopters on the military channel this morning. The stealth part is not nesscesarily a whisper mode but flying under the radar mode and it was invisible to other aircraft radar also. Even the armament was concealed in the fuselage so not to create any radar image. Nice piece of engineering on the manfacturer's part. Not sure which manufacturer it was.

Global Security web site has the same photo as Pop Sci, but a better explanation:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/mh-x.htm

Channel 4 News 3 photos and a different angle of the tail, plus they haul it away, covered.
www.channel4.com/news/stealth-chopper-helped-hit-bin-laden

anyone having any doubts of it being blown up goto REUTERS..they have dead body pictures none of osama bin laden...anyone who believes they killed bin laden..get real ,come on the cia has him hangin from his balls somewhere extracting information from him...anyway ,they have pics of the debris scattered everywhere with burn and soot marks

My guess is that this a secret, follow-on variant of the now cancelled Pave Low IV.

1. The Pave Low IV's job was long-range, low-level penetration deep into denied areas, day or night, in all weather conditions, for the purposes of infiltration, exfiltration and resupply of special forces operations.

Pretty much sums up the entire mission right there.

2. The "disk" or "plate" over what appears to be the tail rotor appears to be very simliar to the plate covering the Pave Low's main rotor.

3. Current reports are that there were two helicopters and 24 SEALS. Blackhawks, even the mythical StealhHawks, would not be able to carry 24 SEALS, their gear and the body of OBL if one of the choppers crashed. That's way too much weight for their engine/airframe combination. Whereas the Pave Low IV had a carrying capacity of up to 37 troops and could easily carry everyone if one crashed.

At 3 Beans Graphic Tees we believe that the MH-60K Black Hawk is an advanced model of the US Army’s UH-60 helicopter. These highly specialized helicopters are designed for special operations support missions and are operated by the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). On May 1, 2011 MH-60s flown by SOAR operators carried SEAL TEAM 6 into a secured private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden was subsequently shot and killed.

Now Pakistan can sell the tail and rotor to China who will make their own stealth
design.

We have to give credit to the guys at Popsci for reporting this picture first. As more information is leaking out, I'm sure that sooner or later, a picture of this beauty will surely unfold. Where are the paparazzi’s when you need them, stop following crazed Sheen movie stars who are getting into trouble and educate us reading with something that has more sustenance.

@Bral, actually there were two helicopters that landed. One being one of them that crashed. From what I got out of the tweet info of the pakistani guy, there was another flying around. It's entirely possible that there could have been 3 helicopters involved. When the one went down, the two loaded up and left.

@cage_anderson Osama is dead. The entire mission was to kill him. His wife was left alive, she more than likely saw him as a corpse. The photos may eventually be released, but it seems you are the type to not believe any evidence regardless of how substantial it is.

I'M sure, and it looks expensive.

Oops,

So this what happens when the air traffic controller falls a sleep. They really need to double them up.=)

So my question is: Who were they hiding from?
.
Why use a vehicle with radar and IR evading technology? They knew bin Laden didn’t have radar or IR tech at his compound. They knew his compound well enough to create a replica & practice raids in it. Perhaps you can argue that this is a standard vehicle for SEALs ops teams. But my guess is they didn’t want the Pakistanis to warn bin Laden he was having company.

And with its gazillion-dollar high-tech stealth technology, this helicopter proved to be just as effective in penetrating the air defenses of a third world nation as a commercial jetliner is in penetrating the air defenses around the Pentagon.

And I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the cutting edge audio/video equipment used in the raid (as widely reported in the mainstream media) that was almost certainly installed on this helicoper.

Does that make more or less sense than US soldiers deliberately blowing up a helicopter to protect top-secret stealth features - and yet somehow failing to plant explosives around one of the so called top secret stealth features.

The modified tail rotor is interesting, but intersting =/= stealth. And stealth =/= effective.

The information isn’t updated or accurate.
This Bird's name is H-60 Blackawk.
It was thought to be a cancelled project of the US Army. Seems it wasn’t!
You can see a picture of this bird here:
www.triond.com/users/VirNeto

Best Regards!

I have heard the theory that JSOC still uses a version of the MH-53J (the Vietnam era Pave Low.)

The reason they still use the older helicopter is that while officially it was replaced with the tilt rotor Osprey, in practice the JSOC Pave Low has a lot of specialized electronics and still has longer range and more payload than most Blackhawks.

By my calculation once the raiding party was down one helicopter, it had to take off with 30 Americans aboard, one stiff, and all that computer junk they grabbed up. That much load seems a bit much to me for a Blackhawk.

I have a theory about the downed helicopter: US did it on purpose.
WHY?
1. Leaves visible/concrete evidence that we were there. Any pictures could be said to be Photoshopped. This tail is concrete.
2. Within the tail, which was not blown up, we put little robots the size of a fly (they do exist) which then follow the tail as the Pakis take it off to a secluded place.
3. As it is being dissembled, the robots fly out and begin their reconnaissance: eyes and ears on the ground.
4. We find out who they are selling info to, where their most secure and secretive places are, and how they REALLY view this whole thing. The Pakis are so duplicitous that we need insight into them if we are going to be able to get this region in order.
5. When US fireballed the front of the helicopter, that was the sign to the Paki airforce that the mission was complete and the US was leaving and Pakis could now scramble their planes (why did it take about 40 minutes for them to scramble?). The US could have fireballed the whole helicopter. Wanted to leave a little token for the Pakis and our real time reconnaissance mission begins.
6.It was only one man that flew that helicopter in and no one else on it. He did not do it until boots were in the compound and the mission was almost over. He jumps out, detonator set to go off in 10 minutes, jumps on one of the other helicopters and they are off. These helicopter pilots do not land half in, half out unless it was on purpose. They knew exactly how high the wall was, and exactly where they wanted to land it half in half out.

This flap over the picture of Bin Laden...whether to let it out or keep it....complete ruse. Think about it. There are somethings that are certain in life, somethings that are not. US knew there would be pictures. They knew we would want to see them, but they knew that a picture would turn into a shrine. But they had to have something concrete (tail of helicopter) for the world....without a picture....you cannot tell me that Panetta and Obama are so out of touch with the whole concern, that one would say the pictures would come and one would say no. They played all of us like little children....and distracted from the TAIL of the helicopter.

sarahlancer, if what you say is true, then another team of operatives will come crashing through your window/door and hit you with a tranquilizer, take you to an interrogation room, ask you how you came up with your theory, and instruct you never to speak of it again, or erase your memory (they do that). theories are great, I don't think one way over the other, Im just mad as hell that after we capped the SOB his name is repeated more than ever. We got em, he's dead, or captured, whatever, I never want to hear his name again. I dont want to see any pictures of him, just drop it!

It is hard to imagine that our military isn't on the cutting edge of everything. The air force has better technology than nasa. So for people to be surprised that a stealth helicopter is out there are nieve. We alrdy have had planes that can take off bye hovering and helicopters that can either be a plane or transform into a chopper. Our military is the best in the world and we will always be improving. People need to stop being shocked bye these things when they come to light. Our government can't release every little project because we feel the right to know what they are doing. They are giving us a life that every american takes for granted. The military of the USA is always going to be the best and always testing new limits.

Stealth helicopters aren't new; they weren't even really new when the Comanche was flying about (they just didn't look anywhere near as cool or were as capable). That this one had a rather hard landing is nothing new; any Army Aviation driver will tell you that. And I don't think they would have committed this one to operation if it wasn't capable - as far as high-stake operations are concerned, this one was a bit of a doozy considering all the possibly worse outcomes that could have occurred.

But THIS stealth helicopter is new, and I am just dying to see an intact and operational one. This is the Nighthawk in the 80's all over again!