The elite team of US Navy SEALs could enter into Pakistani Airspace without being noticed and execute the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Pakistani Military base was just 1000 meters away from the compound in which the raid took place and it was just 100 Kilometers away from the Pakistani capital. This stunt had never been seen before. And it could have been impossible if the aircraft used in the raid were just normal helicopters.
The raid was scheduled for a time with little moon light so the helicopters could enter Pakistan low to the ground and undetected, and the helicopters used hilly terrain and map-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on radar and alerting the Pakistani military. Once the raid began, the Pakistani military scrambled their fighter jets but did not interfere with the raid.
Reduced Radar Cross section (RCS) makes jamming more effective this could explain the electrical and telecommunication blackout reported by the neighbors of Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Karachi’s Geo News described a helicopter crash and “heavy firing” on the evening of May 1 “near the PMA Kakul Road”. Another resident of the area said, “We saw four helicopters at around 2 a.m. We were told to switch off lights of our homes and stay inside.” Local residents in the vicinity of the compound reported that cellular telephone and electrical service in the area went out around the time the raid began and was restored immediately after the Americans departed the area, the Pakistani Military Academy suffered a blackout during this time as well.
During the operation a helicopter was forced to make hard landing due to technical malfunction. The Navy SEALs destroyed the crashed BlackHawk leaving only the tailboom. The crashed helicopter increased the suspicion. The picture shows the modified tailboom which was modified to decrease noise.
The concept of stealth helicopters is not new. RAH-66 Comanche, jointly developed by Boeing and Sikorsky (the company that manufactures UH-60 Black Hawk) which incorporated stealth technologies which was mainly developed for armed reconnaissance. But the project was cancelled because the funds was were need to renovate the existing helicopter fleet of aging attack, utility, and reconnaissance aircraft. After the cancellation we believe Sikorsky must have secretly developed a few stealth UH-60s for US special forces specification. There are many similarities between RAH-66 Comanche and the wreckage found at the compound in Aboottabad.
The idea that the helos used in the raid to capture Osama Bin Laden where stealth came into the light when analyzing the proximity of the Pakistan Army base to the compound of the raid. Either the Pakistani army knew about the raid and turned a blind eye or they didn’t see the helicopters coming in their way. He had been living in a fortified compound in a small city, about one kilometer (0.6 mi) from Pakistan’s premier military academy, and 100 kilometers (62 mi) from the capital, Islamabad
The Pakistani officials scrambled 2 F-16s after hearing the noise of the helicopter when they flew over head after the mission was completed and later confirming that the helos were not of Pakistan. But the helicopter had already left Pakistani airspace when the F-16s arrived at the scene.
Another less noticed event is the 2 CH-47 Chinooks as back up, were they modified to incorporate stealth characteristics too? Also regarding the destroying of the downed Black Hawk, if you remember the movie Black Hawk Down even there a downed Black Hawk was destroyed but it didn’t mean it had stealth characteristics.
Picture: Concept of Stealth UH-60 Black Hawk by David Cenciotti’s Weblog
