.S. Senator John Kerry announced that Pakistan has agreed to return the tail of a stealth
U.S. Black Hawk helicopter that American commandos had to destroy and leave behind in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. This was during the senator’s meeting with Pakistani officials.
Pakistani officials had expressed their interest on studying the remains of the U.S.’s secret stealth-modified
Black Hawk helicopter abandoned during the Navy SEAL raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound, and suggested the Chinese are as well.
The U.S. has already asked the Pakistanis for the
UH-60 helicopter wreckage back,
but one Pakistani official told ABC News the Chinese were also “very interested” in seeing the remains.
One of the
Black Hawks flown by an elite Army unit called Task Force 160 – which carried the Navy SEAL commandos – lost lift and was forced into a hard landing at Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad.
The pilot nudged the
UH-60 Black Hawk forward into a controlled crash – saving the mission from disaster, but sheering off the helicopter’s tail section, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported.
Bill Sweetman, Editor in Chief for Defense Technology for Aviation Week, told “The Early Show” that some unusual features were spotted in the wreckage, including special materials covering the tail rotor hub to reduce the helicopter’s radar signature, and extra rotor blades to make it quieter.
“At a range of a couple hundred feet even, if you’ve got a bit of urban background noise, you’re not going to hear it,” said Sweetman.
Source: CBS News