US Helicopters Raid in Abbottabad

[meekal ahmed]

Tailwind,

If they fly the corridor, they could always explain unusually heavy activity as a training exercise. I am sure they run these 'training exercises' every now and then to lull us into thinking nothing is untoward when the real thing happens.

[TAILWIND]

Meekal you are right. Latest news report yesterday suggest that PAF picked some out of ordinary trafic out of Jalalabad that night.

[Adnan Anwar]

In case, you don't know Pakistan has agreed to return the fuselage of the Stealth BlackHawk.

In my opinion, this is totally ridiculous Pakistani leadership to do that. They should have denied returning it that but since they have agreed too , they should return it in open pieces(stripped off all assembled pieces) just like the Chinese did to a P3 Orion.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13407465

[TAILWIND]

ایک تھا تيتر ايک بٹير
لڑنے ميں تھے دونوں شير
لڑتے لڑتے ھو گئ گم
پاکستان کی چونچ اور امريکہ کی دم

[Abbas Ali]

I've edited topic title from "Where is Ghazi Airbase?" to "US Helicopters Raid in Abbottabad".

Btw, according to a report published recently, the US helicotpers were refueled within Pakistan. One report said that stains of jet fuel were found at an open field in Swat ? I also read somewhere that refueling facility to Black Hawk helicopters was provided by Chinook helicopters. Probably Chinooks in their cargo hold carried fuel barrels for refueling Black Hawk helicopters ?

Related news report

Stealth helicopters refuelled in Pakistan

By: Rameeza Majid Nizami | Published: May 15, 2011

LAHORE - Sources disclose that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) investigative commission formed on the orders of Air Chief Rao Qamar Suleman is in the final stages of compiling its report of the investigation of the Abbottabad incident. The report will contain information gathered as a result of the in-house investigation, which has revealed that all PAF radar systems and technical monitoring assets were fully functional on May 2 and no lapses of vigilance occurred that night on the part of the PAF.

The report details the sequence of events on the night of the incident. Starting with a call from the Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who informed the Air Chief of the Abbottabad incident over the phone at seven minutes past two in the morning (2:07 am). At twenty-five minutes past two (2:25 am), ie 18 minutes later, the PAF jets were present over Abbottabad, but by this time the American operation had been completed.

The report states that the latest in stealth technology was used by the choppers employed in the raid. Helicopters equipped with such technology are undetectable by any radar in the world. The most modern radar system in Russian technology, which is the IR13, is also powerless to detect stealth equipment helicopters, it has been revealed. No country in the world, including Pakistan, possesses or has as yet discovered a method of beating this technology by radar.
Besides the use of stealth machines, the Americans also went unobserved because of the hilly passages they chose as their route to Abbottabad. Traversing deliberately through mountainous terrain, the distance travelled by the American stealth helicopters from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to Abbottabad was almost 250 km, instead of the usual 195 km on a standard flight path, reads the report.
As the engines of these helicopters were intended to remain running even while the Navy Seals carried out their operation in Abbottabad, it was necessary for them to have refuelled at least once, other than the fact that stealth technology helicopters are not capable of flying long distances without refuelling. Although able to refuel mid-flight, the helicopters carrying Seal Team 6 were most probably refuelled after having landed on Pakistani soil, due to the difficulty of refuelling in the air in the mountainous territory they chose to travel through.

According to sources close to the investigation, it is entirely possible that if one of the helicopters had not developed a fault and been destroyed, knowledge of the Abbottabad operation would have been obtained much later than it was that night.

The stealth technology of the helicopters renders them virtually invisible to radar technology and to those observing movement on the radar, because these aircraft are constructed of Radar Absorbent Surfaces (RAS) and also make use of Radar Absorbent Materials (RAM) - which is a special kind of paint designed to deflect radar detective rays. RAS and RAM technology effectively means that rays transmitted by radars to detect movement, instead of being reflected back to the radar, which reads this reflection as verification of an object in its sights, are instead deflected into different directions as well also absorbed by the RAS materials, which the helicopters were constructed from.

Helicopters used on May 2 also possessed rotor blades of a unique and never-before-seen design, which ensured that the noise emitted from their rotation was minimal and again that they drew as little unwanted attention as possible. The report recalls that to date there has been only one instance of a stealth helicopter being shot down, in the year 1990, when in a startling incident Yugoslavia shot a stealth helicopter out of the sky.

This again was not due to radar detection, but was in fact a happy coincidence resulting from an unconcealed mistake of the Yugoslavian army. Sources further inform that it is not out of the question according to the report that Electro-Magnetics Plus (EMP) technology may also have been employed during the raid to temporarily disable communication systems around the area of the operation. This would mean that mobiles, telephones, internet services including other electrical circuits would have been jammed and unable to function while the raid continued.

The Nation has also reliably learnt that the night of May 2 according to the standard operating procedures of peace time radar monitoring, the radars were functioning as normal and in fact also detected flights of American aircraft close to the Pak-Afghan border during the very same hours when the operation was underway in Abbottabad.

The PAF investigative committee, which is overseeing the report, was formed a few hours after the Abbottabad incident by Air Chief Rao Qamar Suleman to look into any possible lapse of caution on the part of the PAF.

The news of the formation of this committee was reported almost two days after its formation. The PAF is also understood to be compiling all facts and technical details of their operations from the night of May 2 for examination by Lieutenant General Javed Iqbal who is heading the investigative committee looking into the Abbottabad incident on the orders of the Prime Minister, as announced in his address to the National Assembly after his return from Paris.

The committee headed by Lt Gen Javed Iqbal also includes a member of the PAF, who will be presenting the detail of its own in-house investigation to the larger committee once the report is completed.

Source: The Nation

[TAILWIND]

It is entirely possible rather most likely that the US task force used a northerly route through swat valley and approached Abbotabad from Mansehra direction masking in the valleys and mountains. This is more important if they had Chinook helicopters as well (as reported in the newsreport) which (assumed) were not stealth. A direct route through the plains of KPK and northern punjab would have exposed them to radar detection.

A small correction must be a mis print, the stealth aircraft shot downover serbia was a stealth fighter F-117A and not a stealth helicopter.

[Abbas Ali]

Here's photo of cockpit canopy of Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter that was shot down by Serbian surface to air missile on March 29, 1999.


Click here to see large photo.

And, here's photo of US Predator drone that was also shot down by Serbian air defence in 1999.

Click here to see large photo.

Abbas

[meekal ahmed]

They were all probe equipped.

[Abbas Ali]

Latest info on Yahoo news.

Five aircraft flew from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, with three school-bus-size Chinook helicopters landing in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way to bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, two of the officials explained.

The Black Hawks were specially engineered to muffle the tail rotor and engine sound, two officials said. The added weight of the stealth technology meant cargo was calculated to the ounce, with weather factored in. The night of the mission, it was hotter than expected.

The plan unraveled as the first helicopter tried to hover over the compound. The Black Hawk skittered around uncontrollably in the heat-thinned air, forcing the pilot to land. As he did, the tail and rotor got caught on one of the compound's 12-foot walls. The pilot quickly buried the aircraft's nose in the dirt to keep it from tipping over, and the SEALs clambered out into an outer courtyard.

The helicopters flew back to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Source: Yahoo! News

Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

According to a news report >>here<<, stealth drones were also used by Americans for monitoring Abbottabad compound before May 2 raid conducted with helicopters.

Abbas

[TAILWIND]

Seeeing the tail rotor pictures showing the tail boom crawled over the wall, I still cant belive the drive system was running at the impact, otherwise the drive shaft and the rotor blades could not remain intact. one of may msyteries shrowding this whole incidents.

And were there any stealth Chinooks too?

[Abbas Ali]

A surprising point is that tail section of the helicopter does not appear to have any marks of fire/explosives used by American forces to destroy rest of the helicopter.

It appears the main fuselage of helicopter fell on other side of the wall and probably American forces in a hurry forgot to destroy tail section or in the darkness night did not notice the tail section that fell on this side of the wall.


Tail section helicopter seen lying near the compound where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad May 2, 2011. The wall bricks on this side are without cement layer covering. The wall in the background has cement covering and it appears between these two walls the main section of helicopter landed - Photo Source: Yahoo! News


Tail section of helicopter removed by a Pakistani military crane. Here also we do not see any marks of explosives/fire on tail section.


Burnt remains of rotor blades. Fire/black smoke marks visible on wall in the background. The wall seen here has cement covering.

Abbas

[TAILWIND]

Another pic which has quite good resolution shows almost intact tail rotor blades.

[meekal ahmed]

Guys,

I can't find the post but what was the position on the presumed in-fight (?) refueling of the choppers in the OBL raid? Any thoughts?

[TAILWIND]

Meekal
They would have to climb to a higher altitude for in flight refuelling from C-130 as they could not have mated with the hercs in narrow winding valleys. I dont know if they have developed a 'stealth' Herc so far or not.
Moreover I read somewhere, that the refuelling probe is a big give away on a stealth design, hence the stealth 'WHICH?Hawk' were without the refuelling probes.

On a lighternote I would suggest follwing names for stealth hawks used in the raids
OSAMAHAWK
ZARDARIHAWK
KAYANIHAWK
PASHAHAWK
GILLANIHAWK