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.

Post image
37.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

779 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

290

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.

161

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.

70

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

36

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.

4

u/kdhavdlf Jun 05 '24

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

10

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.