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After 25 years, fully operational Rooivalk attack helicopter has been delivered. Could it herald a rebirth? By: Keith Campbell 20th May 2011 It has taken some 25 years, but South Africa’s attack helicopter programme has finally delivered a fully operational aircraft to the South African Air Force (SAAF). On April 1, five upgraded Denel Rooivalk helicopters were formally handed over to the Chief of the SAAF, Lieutenant-General (Lt-Gen) Carlo Gagiano, at a ceremony at the Denel Aviation facility next to OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg. Six more will follow by the end of this year....

Pakistan to Return U.S. Chopper Tail By TOM WRIGHT and MATTHEW ROSENBERG ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has agreed to return the tail section of a U.S. helicopter used in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden earlier this month. Sen. John Kerry, who met Monday with senior Pakistani civilian and military officials in Islamabad, said the gesture was among a number of steps both countries had agreed to take to rebuild shattered relations. Pakistan is angered over the unilateral raid that targeted bin Laden in Abbottabad, a military garrison town 40 miles from Islamabad.

During the daring Navy SEAL mission to kill bin Laden a never before seen highly modified stealth Blackhawk MH-60 crashed in his compound. The Special Forces unit had to destroy the helicopter before leaving the scene, but unfortunately the tail boom remained intact and had to be left behind. Photos of the remaining parts were posted on the internet and this was the first time the public saw evidence of one of America’s best kept secrets Design The design of the Stealthy Blackhawk MH-60 is the product of a joint effort between the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Lockheed-Martin...

The (Stealth) Blackhawk Crash The reason a stealthy version of the MH-60 Blackhawk crashed during the May 1 raid that killed Osama bin Laden includes the vortex ring state phenomenon, according to officials, but helicopter crashes in the Middle East are far from uncommon. Hot air close to the ground and the aircraft's proximity to the high walls of the compound could have caused that thin, hot air to be driven by propwash up the walls and then down through the rotor, causing the vortex ring state. With those conditions, the helicopter would have lost lift and settled with power,...

IDEF 2011: T129 project hits its targets May 11, 2011 Project officials are confident that the crash of an A129 Mangusta attack helicopter in March 2010 has caused no delay to the Turkish T129 Attack and Tactical Reconnaissance Helicopter (ATAK) programme. Speaking to Shephard at the IDEF exhibition in Istanbul, representatives of the companies overseeing the various elements of the project were adamant that development was progressing as per the originally agreed schedule. The Turkish Land Forces Command will receive 51 T129 helicopters from 2013, with the aircraft jointly produced in Turkey by Turkish Aerospace Industries and AgustaWestland, with Aselsan...

Secrets: Good news of bin Laden's death may be followed by bad news of Pakistan giving China a peek at our downed helicopter. Will we be threatened by our own technology? They are something out of the latest Batman flick, the modified Black Hawk helicopters that were used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound. With a curious hublike housing around the unusually configured rear-rotor, among other things, it was clearly designed to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. When one of the copters clipped a wall in bin Laden's compound, it had to be destroyed, leaving...

Will Pakistan give the downed Navy SEALs helicopter to China? Posted By Josh Rogin Monday, May 9, 2011 - 12:47 PM As Congress prepares several ways to challenge U.S. aid funding to Pakistan following the revelation that Osama bin Laden had been hiding there for years, one senior congressman is highlighting the Pakistan-China relationship as a key reason to distrust Islamabad. "In 1998 Pakistan's military and intelligence services facilitated the transfer to Communist China of a Taliban recovered unexploded American Tomahawk cruise missile, which we fired in an attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden and members of al-Qaeda. The Communist...

Yesterday Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual on Twitter) was just “an IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains”, specifically Abbottabad, northern Pakistan. The IT contractor and graduate of Preston University also says he’s a ‘startup specialist’ on his LinkedIn profile, but now owns a coffee shop. But today he will become known as the guy who, while live-tweeting a series of helicopter flypasts and explosion, unwittingly covered the US forces helicopter raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. And he knows it. Here’s a selection of his Tweets: [Update: it looks like @m0hcin was there too, read...

Stealth Blackhawk Used In Bin Laden Raid? May 4, 2011 By Glenn Pew, Contributing Editor, Video Editor Images of what appears to be the tail-rotor of one the helicopters used in Sunday's raid on Osama bin Laden's compound at Abbottabad, Pakistan, are hitting the internet, and may be a glimpse at something special. The parts don't appear to come from the standard military catalogue. According to the Army Times, the aircraft "were a radar-evading variant of the special operations MH-60 Blackhawk." That aircraft has hard edges like those on the F-117 Nighthawk and incorporates similar low-observable technology.

Before an elite team of U.S. Navy SEALs executed a daring raid that took down Osama bin Laden, the commandos were able to silently sneak up on their elusive target thanks to what aviation analysts said were top secret, never-before-seen stealth-modified helicopters. In the course of the operation that cost the al Qaeda leader his life, one of the two Blackhawk helicopters that carried the SEALs into bin Laden's Pakistani compound grazed one of the compound's wall and was forced to make a hard landing. With the chopper inoperable, at the end of the mission the SEALs destroyed it with...

Sikorsky unveils next generation helicopter Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2011 11:52AM EDT Sikorsky is hoping to sell the Pentagon on some new technology it says will allow for faster, more agile attack helicopters.

LAAD 2011: Brazilian Mi-35s take on the drug runners April 15, 2011 The Brazilian Air Force's (FAB's) Mi-35M attack helicopters are proving themselves on anti-narcotic operations and the service is still hopeful additional numbers of the type will be procured. At the LAAD 2011 exhibition in Rio de Janeiro from 12 to 15 April, the air force displayed one of the six Mi-35Ms currently in service, which support counter-narcotics operations across the Amazon region. Service representatives said while there were some limitations to the aircraft’s performance due to the heat and humidity of the region, the Mi-35M had had a...

SAAF finally takes delivery of fully operational Rooivalk helicopters By: Keith Campbell 1st April 2011 The first five fully operational Rooivalk helicopters were handed over to the South African Air Force (SAAF) by Denel Aviation on Friday morning. These fully operational aircraft are designated as the Rooivalk Mk 1. Previously, although the Rooivalks could fly, they were not truly operational and could not be deployed, for example, to support United Nations peacekeeping operations. “This is a historic moment for Denel and indeed the entire South African defence and advanced manufacturing industries,” affirmed Denel group CE Talib Sadik. “The Rooivalk is...

Amarillo-built helos 'ready for combat' By Joe Gamm Created Mar 15 2011 - 12:00am An attack helicopter assembled in Amarillo has achieved initial combat readiness, and is being deployed to the Marine Corps. Bell Helicopter officials said the AH-1Z has earned an Initial Operating Capability designation six months ahead of schedule. "They are ready (for combat) now," said Col. Harry Hewson in an e-mail to the Amarillo Globe-News. Hewson, the program manager for the Marines light/attack helicopters, said on Feb. 25 the first Marine squadron received a detachment of six AH-1Z aircraft, along with required primary and support equipment and...

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In Siachen, Dhruv proves a world-beater Ajai Shukla / Bangalore March 7, 2011, 0:48 IST It was a brutal test of helicopter and pilot. As the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) shuddered towards the icy helipad on a 21,000-foot ledge overlooking the Siachen Glacier, the pilots could see wreckage from earlier helicopter crashes dotting the base of the vertical ice walls on either side. Ahead lay the Indian Army’s infamous Sonam Post, the highest inhabited spot on earth, and an extreme example of why the military so urgently wants the Dhruv, which has been customised by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)...

Libyan state TV has aired footage of three detained Dutch marines who were captured along with their helicopter by forces loyal to leader Moammar Kadafi near the Kadafi-stronghold of Sirte on Sunday as they reportedly were carrying out a mission to evacuate two Europeans. The Dutch Defense Ministry insists the crew was simpy carrying out a "consular evacuation" -- a claim that Libya seems to find dubious. On Friday, Libya's Al-Jamahiriyah TV broadcast a video report showing the helicopter crew of three, including one woman, sitting in a room.

India to go for open bidding for Navy deal, rejects US offer NEW DELHI: India has turned down an American offer to supply 16 multirole helicopters (MRH) through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route for its Navy and decided to go for open competitive bidding for the multi-billion dollar deal. The US Navy had offered the MH-60 'Romeo' to meet Navy's requirement for 16 MRH through an inter-governmental agreement but the proposal was rejected, Defence Ministry sources told PTI on Thursday. Under the FMS route, the procurement is done through inter-governmental agreements where the product is offered directly by the...

Mi-28 helicopter gunship crashes in south Russia A Mil Mi-28 Night Hunter attack helicopter crashed in southern Russian region of Stavropol injuring two crew members, a police source told RIA Novosti. The crash took place at 10.40 am Moscow time on Tuesday [07.40 GMT], three kilometers from the village of Praskovye in the Budyennovsk district. "According to preliminary information, the engine gearbox broke and the crew decided to carry out an emergency landing," the source said. "The aircraft crashed cabin-first into the ground." The injured crew members, one of whom was knocked out in the crash, were hospitalized. The Mi-28N...

PZL-Świdnik Delivers Four W-3PL Głuszec Helicopters to the Polish Land Forces (Source: AgustaWestland; issued Feb. 11, 2011) AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that PZL- Świdnik has delivered all of four upgraded W-3PL Głuszec helicopters, a multirole combat version of the W-3 Sokół, to the Polish Land Forces. PZL- Świdnik and the Polish Ministry of Defence signed a research and development phase contract in 2003 for a prototype W-3PL (Głuszec) helicopter, a modernised version of the Army’s existing helicopter. A second contract was signed in 2006 to upgrade four in service helicopters to W-3PL standard. PZL- Świdnik and...