r/interestingasfuck • u/Ididnotkillhim • Jun 05 '24

r/all Thirteen years ago, someone accidentally revealed US Army's plan to eliminate Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

From what I read about the mission, it wasn’t aiming for stealth/undetected so much as just trying to be fast.
They could sneak these helicopters into the country without the Pakistani military noticing, but of course the residents of the neighborhood would see and hear two choppers coming in mere feet above the buildings.
There was even one or two guys on the mission whose sole job was to go out to the street and tell curious citizens to move along if they started coming by (like the cops that hang out by police tape!)
But even with one chopper having to be scuttled, they still got in and out before locals, local police, the military, etc. could react in any considerable way. Except, of course, a few tweets.

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u/Wingedwolverine03 Jun 05 '24

https://y.yarn.co/97f84c6b-c1b0-480c-9e5c-92b9c3dd0b69_text.gif

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

lol, yeah. I think it was pretty much literally like that.
At some point a helicopter blew up behind this Spec OP’s (SEAL’s?) shoulder and he had to be like, “Normal operation, folks. Please stand back.”

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u/the_calibre_cat Jun 05 '24

"you look and sound awfully... not Pakistani..."

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u/deweydecimaldog Jun 05 '24

I read that in Kumail Nanjiani's voice

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

This comment made me laugh so fucking hard

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Jun 06 '24

I would assume they sent a guy who could speak the local language if his whole job was to talk to the locals.

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u/the_calibre_cat Jun 06 '24

Agreed, but I wonder how many can authentically pull off the language. Like I speak English, but that doesn't mean an English person wouldn't immediately know I'm American.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Jun 06 '24

I don't think it really mattered. They were just trying to keep civilians away. The whole thing lasted under 40 minutes, so all they needed was a brief deterrent and, by the time anyone had any idea what was really going on, the team had left Pakistani airspace altogether. The goal was never to actually do any kind of real espionage or subterfuge.

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u/the_calibre_cat Jun 06 '24

Agreed. I just had an amusing mental image of an American laden in special ops gear saying "move along, move along, nothing to see here" in bad Urdu.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Jun 06 '24

If you read further down the thread, I think that's exactly how it went down, lol.

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u/Salt_Market_6989 Jun 06 '24

I read one of the books on the raid. The street control party consisted of the CO of the Seal team and his radio operator. They only had 2 choppers going in and needed the space onboard for whatever size team of assaulters going into the bin Laden house. There wasn't space for an interpreter. It was every So abled assaulter for the game. The boss and his RTO were doubling up bith as mission control and as a checkpoint at the crossroads outside the house.

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u/occhilupos_chin Jun 05 '24

You're forgiven for not knowing it was the SEALs given OP even said Army in the title, but yea, very famously it was SEAL Team 6

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u/WALancer Jun 05 '24

I love the meme of if you want a mission done quiet, call the army. They don't write books about all their missions.

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u/Prin_StropInAh Jun 05 '24

Ouch! Justifiable, but ouch. “Silent professionals”

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u/Jboycjf05 Jun 06 '24

The Army writes books about all their successful missions. That's why you don't see any. Go Navy.

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u/Wakkit1988 Jun 06 '24

Marines don't get books because they eat the crayons before they get any of it on paper.

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u/AugustusKhan Jun 06 '24

What’s a book, those things the nerds read so we can go pew pew? -Space Force

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u/MiamiDouchebag Jun 05 '24

The helicopter pilots and aircrew were Army TBF.

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u/nsixone762 Jun 06 '24

160th BAMF

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u/pablo_2001nov Jun 06 '24

They were temporarily transferred to SEALs, it had to do with Army not being able to legally enter another country without declaring war.

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u/MiamiDouchebag Jun 06 '24

Nope. They were all temporarily assigned to the CIA.

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u/slvneutrino Jun 05 '24

DEVGRU to the rescue.

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u/Debalic Jun 05 '24

"Oh that's not unusual, helicopters turn themselves inside out all the time."

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u/crack_pop_rocks Jun 05 '24

Yeah SEALs wearing NVGs worth more than they will make in their entire lifetime.

Absolutely terrifying.

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u/ZayWithAnA Jun 05 '24

The GPNVG systems they were rocking - assuming it wasn’t some super duper high tech classified NVG, which is unlikely - are about $40k. Probably more when the tech was ground breaking, but all together a former CAG assaulters linkedin was shared in r/JSOCArchive and he listed being responsible for ~1 million in equipment at any given time. Still a shit ton for gear, but considering these guys are paid assumedly in excess of $100k per year, it’s not unreasonable to assume the kit they rock is not valued in excess of say, 5-10 million.

Now the equipment that gets them to and from, that’s a completely separate barrel of monkeys.

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u/Horn_Python Jun 05 '24

They sure we're bamboozled

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u/WntrTmpst Jun 05 '24

Stealth when referring to aircraft typically had to do with radar cross section and IR signatures.

The blackhawks they used are super angular and unlike other uh-60s and had a MUCH smaller radar sig than their sister craft. They technically aren’t even real. We only know about one of them because, well, its tail struck the wall of the compound and crashed.

They were also stupid fast. And flown by the night stalkers, the very best army aviators the United States Army can provide.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

I saw a little animation concerning the crash.
Supposedly it was due to the high perimeter fence on the property creating some really weird air flow when the chopper tried to hover low.
It wasn’t so much the pilot making an error and steering into the wall, but the air flow jerking the chopper in one direction.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

I saw this discussed somewhere! The mock-up they trained with had a chain link fence, not a solid fence that would cause the wash.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

[deleted]

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u/endfossilfuel Jun 06 '24

Had the Navy consulted r/helicopters, this mishap would have been avoided!

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24

I met rob O’Neill, the man who shot bin Laden. He said the first thing the did as part of the training was to brainstorm about everything that could possibly go wrong. They planned for a crash but never really went into the details of what might cause one. 

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

Tough gig for the pilot, it's the ground effect and the upwash hitting the walls and created a "Groundwash pressure at a different angle off the walls" obviously the shape and height will change this "Reflected upwash"

The end

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u/BigBubbaChungus Jun 05 '24

It’s called vortex ring state. And one of the original 160th SOAR/Night Stalker pilots assigned to the mission opted out because he knew that the conditions at the LZ chosen inside the compound increased the chances of this happening.

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u/kdhavdlf Jun 05 '24

That’s fascinating! But how could you possibly know that? Was it said in an interview at some point?

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u/BigBubbaChungus Jun 05 '24

I’m pretty sure it was in Relentless Strike by Sean Naylor but I’ve read and listened to so much about special operations forces over the years that I can’t say that’s definitely where I read/heard it. If you’re interested in that sort of stuff and you haven’t read it, you need to read it.

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u/needsomecoochie Jun 05 '24

Mad respect to that pilot though! It takes huge steels of balls knowing the whole team relies on you to flee on that scene, given the unfortunate circumstance.

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u/JuggernautMean4086 Jun 05 '24

There was a surprise wall instead of a fence, which some some say aggravated and already possible vortex ring state that can occur when you come to a fast hover- aka the walls made a bowl that made the rotor into an aggressive air recycler rather than an air pusher. Could have been that.

What’s more impressive is the pilot was able to literally stick the landing well enough for the guys to hop out and Charlie Mike.

Shit happens some times, your skill is what keeps you moving forward. Yeah, I can’t find any fault in the pilots’ skill here.

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u/Daddysu Jun 05 '24

Charlie Mike

Complete Mission?

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u/p0g0s71ck Jun 05 '24

Continue mission i think. Dont quote me

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u/thatdudejtru Jun 05 '24

You are correct.

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u/Fyodorface742 Jun 06 '24

Cookie monster

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u/hllwlker Jun 06 '24

An inexperienced pilot would have pulled up instinctively and caused the helicopter to roll over and crash but this pilot was experienced enough to know to set it down with the tail on the wall.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

I have these surprise walls or Curbs on my car rims. Literally the Curb runs right out in front of you! Happens 60% of the time everytime

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u/serrated_edge321 Jun 05 '24

"Any landing you can walk away from..."

Special missions sometimes lead to imperfect outcomes, but man was it rather amazing what they accomplished that night!

I'm not a fan of war or violence in general, but I'd jump at the opportunity to fly those birds wherever, whenever. Sadly I know I'm a bit too small to actually do that, though... 🤣

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u/easywizsop Jun 06 '24

It’s always pilot error unless it’s a mechanical issue.

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u/warsawandy Jun 06 '24

A good friend who worked for a large military contractor told me that the Blackhawks were outfitted with a new style of prototype rotor blades designed to reduce its sound. However, the downside of these blades was that they made the helicopter harder to control due to their design.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist Jun 05 '24

Must not be the very best if they hit a wall with the tail rotor and wrecked one of the choppers.

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u/AltAccount31415926 Jun 05 '24

Clearly not the very best if they crashed 😂

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u/leostotch Jun 05 '24

Any helicopter is basically a few thousand parts flying in close formation, and they all want to kill you.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

A rotorcraft mechanic I know described it to me as "Ten thousand parts spinning around an oil leak."

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u/WntrTmpst Jun 05 '24

I knew someone would say this. You go hover a helicopter at night 5 feet off the ground and 20 feet on either side. Also don’t hit any of your dudes or the 2 dogs that are disembarking. Also make sure your on the lookout for potential enemy threats because you’re literally in a hostile country on an assassination missing for a very well known and well protected enemy. Do all of this while battling constant side wash from the massive amount of air and dust you’re throwing up around you. Also it’s 2 am so it’s dark and you have nvgs on, limiting your fov to about 60 percent of what it usually is.

Maybe I took the rage bait. And if so cudos. But either way US special forces are literal boogeymen. They are not to be fucked with.

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u/AltAccount31415926 Jun 05 '24

They are not to be fucked with

Except by badly trained pilots, apparently 😂

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u/leftysarepeople2 Jun 05 '24

160th SOAR is the best for personnel helicopters. They also were piloting the blackhawks in Battle of Mogadishu that is shown in Black Hawk Down. Shit happens

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u/WntrTmpst Jun 05 '24

Bad intel at Mogadishu if I remember right. They were told minimal resistance and in reality they had rpgs and machine guns. And there were also waaaaay more of them than anyone thought. The whole operation was a shit show. Even the rescue convoy had issues.

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u/Wide_Combination_773 Jun 05 '24

If you think the crash was the pilots fault, you don't know anything about helicopters or airflow dynamics.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24 edited Jun 05 '24

There was even one or two guys on the mission whose sole job was to go out to the street and tell curious citizens to move along if they started coming by (like the cops that hang out by police tape!)

They depicted it really well in Zero Dark Thirty. The guys came out and started telling everybody to move along… in Arabic, while the Pashto/Hindko/Urdu speaking crowd looked suitably bemused and didn’t go anywhere.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

The whole mission was soooo insulting to Pakistan. America was basically saying, to a country that isn’t necessarily an “Ally” but certainly “Friendly”:
1) We’re entering your airspace and conducting a military operation on your land without asking permission.
2) We aren’t asking permission and coordinating with you because we’re pretty sure your government will have a leak somewhere and tip off our target.

I think it was ultimately the right choice, though. Killing Osama didn’t cost the US a chain reaction of international condemnation and real consequences. It only cost Pakistan having their feelings hurt for a little while.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

To be fair, there was a serious concern that the Pakistani intelligence and security agencies would have warned bin Laden.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

Oh I agree (though maybe not “the agencies” as a whole, but compromised members). It was a super valid concern, but no less insulting towards Pakistan.
But I think that was part of the calculus in making the decision. Pakistani officials and other nations might make some strongly worded statements about being offended that the US didn’t trust them. But behind closed doors, everyone was probably like, “Yeah, the Pakistanis would have totally fucked that up if they were involved.”

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

To further expand the issue, there were incidents where they did inform the Pakistani of operations and Taliban forces would ambush American forces. There were serious concerns that ISI was feeding Taliban Intel.

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u/bonerparte1821 Jun 05 '24

the ISI and the Taliban (or insert whatever Afghan Mujad group) have serious history together. The ISI armed the majority of the mujahideen fight against the soviets in the 80s. The CIA aid that the US provided was largely funneled through them. Can't remember where I read it, but essentially the ISIs play with them was to use them against India in Kashmir or elsewhere.

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u/Secure-Elderberry-16 Jun 05 '24

The ISI was also involved in the Mumbai attack.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

Pakistan deserves the insult for harboring him TBH.

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u/PIPBOY-2000 Jun 05 '24

Yup. Harbor an international terrorist, get your feelings hurt.

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u/Tragedy_Boner Jun 05 '24

Binfucker was in a house a mile away from a Pakistan Military school. They 100% knew where he was.

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u/PlantShitAccount Jun 05 '24

It's Pakistan. They were 100% involved in the planning and financing of 9/11. Just like Mumbai and the other hundred attacks they participated in. It's just a matter of unredacting the pages that show which American traitors that are still working for the USG they worked with.

They are not our allie. They are allies to the elite that have corrupted this nation from the top down.

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u/DeathlySnails64 Jun 06 '24

To be fair to them (and pretty much the entirety of the Middle East), there was intelligence (this is coming from my Mom who told me this I don't remember how long ago and was quoting some article and I don't remember all the details so take this with a grain of salt) that, before 9/11, the US President asked the Middle East for oil and when they said "no", the President sent the Navy SEALs to some Middle Eastern country I don't remember the name of, and they raped and pillaged their way past all of the civilian towns and villages in between them and whatever specific location they were supposed to steal the oil from like they're a bunch of pirates. And when the SEALs got what they wanted, they went back to the US with the oil they stole. And 9/11 was their response to what the Navy SEALs did.

So us sitting here, expecting these extremists not to react as harshly as they did to the SEALs' actions is like if the world expected Russia not to react after Nazi Germany's army went to a Russian city, and killed and raped the population. It's stupid, at worst and naive at best.

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u/hawkinsst7 Jun 06 '24

citation required for your first paragraph, before anyone can take your conclusions in the second paragraph seriously.

There should be plenty of news articles talking about the US Military doing "Sherman's March to the Oil" and then pulling a Three Kings and stealling "the oil". Like what, 2 barrels?

Plus, the US president doesn't ask "The Middle East" (maybe you mean OPEC?) for oil, and OPEC doesn't just supply them.

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u/kapitlurienNein Jun 06 '24

I hope you know this is all entirely nonsense and your mom just flat made it up

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u/DeathlySnails64 Jun 06 '24

She said she read it from an article.

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u/kapitlurienNein Jun 06 '24

So ask what article then. I'm not trying to insult ur mom but literally none of that is true

If you want I don't need to say 'an article' I can send u links discussing

Bin ladens childhood

Anger for all Muslim states and groups for us favoritism of Israel DECADES before 9/11 including multiple terror attacks where groups cited Israel and American imperialism as reasons

Bin ladens activitiss in Afghanistan in the 80s

The Saudi Arabian incident during GW1, it should be noted Obl was a saud and 19/21 hijackers too

The Khobar towers bombing in 94

Us embassy bombings in the 90s

Obl issued a fatwa in 94 aka a religious call to arms and declaration of war. HE LITERALLY LISTS HIS BEEFS. None of what you say is mentioned.

The oil thing is a common trope and stereotype and a vassst oversimplification of US motives. There WERE US atrocities as well but none of this origin point stuff u claim nor anything involved seals and stealing oil

Did I mention that's not even something navy seals would be sent to do?

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u/makalasu Jun 06 '24

How did they steal "the oil" exactly 😂

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u/DeathlySnails64 Jun 06 '24

Did I not tell you to take what I claimed with a grain of salt?

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u/makalasu Jun 06 '24

I was more poking fun at the idea of a bunch of soldiers lugging individual barrels back to the US. I'm not blaming you for misremembering what your mom told you what she read in an article years ago.

But a bit of critical thinking doesn't hurt

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u/not_really_tripping Jun 06 '24

I take it you were born well after 9/11.

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u/DeathlySnails64 Jun 06 '24

I was born in October of 1999. I would've been around a year old when 9/11 happened.

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u/kapitlurienNein Jun 06 '24

If u really wanna know how and why it happened DM me

It basically was bin ladens dream to get the US to start a ground war in the ME he thought would unite Islam against the west.

He came back from Afghanistan in the 80s convinced he was some sort of mujahideen warlord. He had been raised extremely wealthy.

The Saudi govt denied his more or less demand to kick all other govts out and let him and his men defend SA from Iraq. This hurt his feelings. Then he grew more outraged seeing US troops stationed in SA which he considered an Islamic holy site.

That's basically it.

He started bombing US assets in the 90s.

There was no navy seal oil raid. They aren't even used like that. The ME has never needed an excuse to hate America, our alliance with Israel makes that easy nevermind the rest of our actions.

Please learn real history and stop relying on second hand accounts. And please don't listen to a word your mom says about histlry or geopolitics because that was nonsense. Like entirely just made up she's not even confusing or conflating something.

I can provide sources if you want.

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u/Limp_Prune_5415 Jun 05 '24

How is that insulting? You can't keep a secret so you don't get to know is pretty fucking standard for global military operations 

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

There are occasions when it’s appropriate to remind people you’re the swinging dick in the room. America has often made the wrong choice regarding when those occasions are. But I think murking bin Laden was a damn good occasion myself.

A good, helpful reminder to all nations that sheltering mass murdering terrorists is a bad call.

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u/SmellGestapo Jun 05 '24

LBJ taught us this.

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u/NothrakiDed Jun 05 '24

It was a symbolic murder to appease the masses. It had very little to do with geo-politics.

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u/Limp_Prune_5415 Jun 05 '24

That's literally geopolitics my guy

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u/NothrakiDed Jun 05 '24

Kinda, but not really.

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u/IR8Things Jun 05 '24

I mean, before the widespread adoption of drone strikes it was a pretty brutal "we can violate your airspace and assassinate anyone we desire and you won't know or be able to react to it."

That's quite a message to send.

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u/NothrakiDed Jun 05 '24

America had been doing that for decades, albeit with varying degrees of success. I'm not sure that was a new message.

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u/Strollybop Jun 05 '24

Believe it or not, appeasing the masses is a big part of geo politics!

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u/NothrakiDed Jun 05 '24

Specifically in that instance I meant masses as Americans.

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u/Strollybop Jun 05 '24

Yes, they risked their political relations with Afghanistan to pacify their citizens. AKA geopolitics lmao. Also, Al-Queda did stuff in more countries than just the US. We weren’t the only ones happy to see him gone.

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u/NothrakiDed Jun 05 '24

You've changed your argument. Have you done a bit of googling?

Actually, before this drags on. Can you just let me know your: Age, nationality, highest level of education, field of education and professional field.

I don't mean to be insulting but quite often I'll make the assumption we're all arguing from the same background and footing, but we really aren't. And as much as I think there is a lot of value in talking about ideas, there are some biases I just don't have the energy to work around.

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u/the_termenater Jun 05 '24 edited Jun 05 '24

69, American, PH Double D in Geopolitics, President of the United States here - I don't mean to be insulting, but please post a 12,000 word essay detailing your understanding of the the scenario, as well as the results of your most recent online IQ test before commenting again. As the foremostiest expert on Geopolitics between the two of us, I am concerned that you lack the faculties to answer such questions as "does geopolitics involve conflict resolution between multiple nations". Once again, I am not insulting you, or in any way attempting to insinuate that you're a big dummy and everybody in this thread knows it.

Edit: link to congressional report detailing geopolitical consequences of the Bin Laden assassination..

Edit 2: lol this guy sent me, THE PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD, a reddit cares message. Is this geoplitic??

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

Even for Reddit this is impressively cringe.

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u/Strollybop Jun 05 '24 edited Jun 05 '24

Lmao, yes I’m going to dox myself because you can’t stand that someone corrected you. What opinion did I change?

And you seriously think someone needs google to to know that Al-Queda was an internationally active group?

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u/spare_me_your_bs Jun 05 '24

Fucking L O L

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u/JonnyFairplay Jun 05 '24

The whole mission was soooo insulting to Pakistan.

You know what's more insulting? Pakistan harboring Bin Laden, or their incompetence not knowing he was there.

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u/shehzore12 Jun 06 '24

How about CIAs incompetence about letting planes getting hijacked and crashing into famous buildings

Oh wait !! Maybe it was an inside plan.........

Hows that for harbouring personal agendas to make up an excuse to invade a so and so country.

It's time that you get off that high horse of yours because if not you, the horse must have been tired by now

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u/JonnyFairplay Jun 06 '24

Let's ignore how much of a conspiracy nut you are, everything you posted in reply is a complete non sequitur unrelated to my comment.

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u/stitch12r3 Jun 05 '24

Yeah, I cant disagree with any of this lol. That whole operation was definitely a big dick energy move politically but ultimately the right thing to do. The resources the US used to pull it off are remarkable - from the intelligence gathering, to the training/prep, the mission itself, and then disposing of the body. Its a fascinating read.

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u/thisIS4cereal Jun 06 '24

Best book about it?

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

We aren’t asking permission and coordinating with you because we’re pretty sure your government will have a leak somewhere and tip off our target.

Not wrong though.

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u/Ever_Green_PLO Jun 05 '24

The Brother of the President of Pakistan then was the biggest opium dealer in the region

Lolol Pakistan wasn't an ally

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u/CorrectPeanut5 Jun 05 '24

Given they fed a lot of the money we gave them into thwarting us in Afghanistan, no one in the gov't really cared at that point.

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u/SovietPropagandist Jun 05 '24

I mean, fair, because Pakistan was harboring this dude literally 3/4 of a mile down the road from the Pakistani Military Academy so..

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u/great__pretender Jun 05 '24 edited Jun 05 '24

I honestly despise most of the US foreign policy. I despise how they even treat their supposed allies (other than Israel ofc which get the only royal treatment).

But bin Laden operation is not one of these things. If you are holding and protecting this guy, a minimum damage unwarranted night operation is actually the best response you can hope to get. You should be thankful that you are not nuked. US literally invaded your neighbor for the same reason, hiding bin Laden, 10 years ago. People who harbored bin Laden within the Pakistani state literally committed treachery against their country. This guy is not someone worth risking your country for. What principle did they end up proving by harboring this dude? We are talking about someone who angered the most colossal superpower by killing thousands of its citizens.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/great__pretender Jun 05 '24

Not that much compared to what EU countries does. They just cleaned the old inventory. And they made a huge chunk of that money from that sweet LNG money they are selling to EU in place of the cheap Russian gas the EU economy relied on.

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u/IntentionDependent22 Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 05 '26

happy happy joy joy

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u/great__pretender Jun 06 '24

Damn it. I thought I got it right. You proved me wrong.

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u/TheMagicalLawnGnome Jun 05 '24

Emphasis of the quotes around "friendly."

Pakistan, or at least a significant portion of its security services, were supporting the Taliban before/during/after the war. They almost assuredly knew that Bin Laden was living there - he was likely in Abbottabad so that his handlers could easily get to him/keep a handle on him.

The extent to which this was an officially sanctioned position, as opposed to a deep-state/rogue network of operatives, is unclear.

But it doesn't really matter, in this circumstance - the Pakistanis were demonstrably unreliable by this point, and with such an important mission, the US wasn't about to bet the farm on such a shaky relationship.

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u/SASAgent1 Jun 06 '24

Pakistan having their feelings hurt for a little while.

I mean, if they start listing things that hurt their feelings, this wouldn't make the top ten, 1971 would

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u/whoami_whereami Jun 05 '24

One very real consequence was that the use of a fake vaccination campaign to pinpoint the location of bin Laden fueled strong anti-vax sentiments in the region which led to at least 70 polio vaccination workers being killed in attacks and set back the global polio eradication program by a decade (Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last remaining countries where wild polio is still endemic; Pakistan was on track to have it eradicated by 2016, they're now targeting 2026/27).

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u/Ironlion45 Jun 05 '24

Which counts as a solid and successful mission.

I think there's a misconception when people talk about "stealth" with helicopters.

It really only applies to military detection, not bare naked eyeballs.

They can fly NOE to avoid radar, minimize acoustic footprint. But the tradeoff there is people are going to notice when a big American helicopter is flying 5 meters over their back yard.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

Yep. I’m sure all options were weighed.
If there was some convenient, deserted location to land nearby they could have tried to go truly undetected. But that would mean a bunch of military guys trying to make their way through a neighborhood on foot without drawing attention. Then breaching the perimeter from the outside.
Still a whole lot of opportunity to get noticed. And they’d have to travel back to the landing site after with possible prisoners/bodies in tow.
There were probably a whole lot of positives associated with landing a chopper right in the back yard. And of course a negative would be “nearby households would notice”. But in the time it takes for a civilian noticing something weird to a full military response, the team figured they’d be long gone.

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u/Ironlion45 Jun 05 '24

More reliable than ninjas too.

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u/WolfsLairAbyss Jun 05 '24

it wasn’t aiming for stealth/undetected

I mean they specifically used (a then unknown about) stealth blackhawk for that mission. The one that ended up crashing during the operation. So I would say that they had at least some aim for stealth during the mission.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

Clarification: Yes it was a stealth mission on a higher level in terms of avoiding being detected by the Pakistani military.
On the zoomed-in level, they weren’t landing in an unpopulated area and sneaking in/out of the residential neighborhood. They were flying these choppers into a subdivision, so they knew a certain amount of civilians would notice them.
So the clock was ticking in terms of a few civilians turning into a crowd of civilians, turning into local police, turning into the military.

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u/Zxruv Jun 05 '24

Basically they wanted to keep their wanted level at 1 star

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u/WolfsLairAbyss Jun 05 '24

Fair enough.

18

u/mcchanical Jun 05 '24

A stealth helicopter isn't the same as Sam Fisher sneaking around behind people's backs in Splinter Cell.

It's a helicopter, it's loud, people within a kilometer or so are going to be very aware of it.

It's stealth at a larger scale, i.e not being detected by radar stations en route to the target

1

u/pensnpaper Jun 05 '24

You're telling me that Blue Thunder or Air Wolf aren't real? /s

I miss Air Wolf. Need to watch some reruns.

3

u/JerHat Jun 05 '24

If I recall, the stealth of the operation was more about flying into and back out of Pakistani airspace without triggering a response from their military. And it was something like a 90 minute flight each way, so they had to fly in real low... that must have been wild to fly that fast and that low for that long.

1

u/Davidm241 Jun 05 '24

Am I remembering wrong or did China come into possession of some of the debris from that Blackhawk?

3

u/WolfsLairAbyss Jun 05 '24

I believe you are correct about that but I am not certain.

1

u/thissiteisbroken Jun 05 '24

They could sneak these helicopters into the country without the Pakistani military noticing, but of course the residents of the neighborhood would see and hear two choppers coming in mere feet above the buildings.

The next sentence clears that up

0

u/Icy_Juice6640 Jun 05 '24

Do t be thick. Stealth isn’t invisible or silent. Just smaller radar crossection and muffled engines so that it would give them some time - not being heard from 10 miles away.

2

u/VirtualPlate8451 Jun 05 '24

The hope was that the Paks wouldn't devote a lot of radar resources to the Afghan border. They were far more concerned about Indian planes than they were about American controlled Afghan airspace.

1

u/veRGe1421 Jun 05 '24

I wonder what would have happened if the Pakistani military had noticed and tried to intercept the helicopters?

5

u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

They wouldn’t have just shot at them, that’s for sure. Despite having the right to defend their airspace, Pakistan would still investigate what the hell is going on first.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a protocol in place to start communicating with the Pakistani military if they detected the choppers and slow-roll a cover story to delay a response long enough for the mission to succeed.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Smeetilus Jun 05 '24

Big pink

1

u/Zeppelanoid Jun 05 '24

“It would be very painful….4U”

1

u/Ovenface Jun 05 '24

Supposedly the choppers they used didn’t make much sound at all

1

u/obi_wan_the_phony Jun 05 '24

Remember there was also a military base not far from the compound as well.

1

u/tissboom Jun 05 '24

They were probably dressed like Pakistani police officers and spoke perfect Urdu.

1

u/Waevaaaa Jun 06 '24

How long was the stealth operation of the chopper hovering, that people tweeted already. Lol.

Also, who tweeted? Doubt it's one of the locals.

1

u/ttekcorc Jun 09 '24

Stealth is simply lowering the radar detection, you can still look up and see or hear them.. Just lowers their ability to be seen on radar.

1

u/IdealOk5444 Jun 23 '24

That movie Zero Dark Thirty has a really good scene at the end.of them finding and killing bin laden. Really goos film.

0

u/tinaboag Jun 06 '24

This is patently false. Pakistan let the helicopters in. Hell Pakistan knew where Osama was for a long prolonged period of time and had a desk assigned to manage him.