What About The MH-47s Used In the Bin Laden Raid?

FacebookXPinterestEmailEmailEmailShare

This video seems like run of the mill CNN reporting on the possibility that Pakistan may give the remnants of the stealth helicopter used in the raid to kill Osama bin Laden last week to China. I'm pretty sure we all thought that the second we saw photos of the tail lying inside Pakistan. However, the very end of the report offers up a very interesting snip of info on Pakistan's initial response to the incident. Go to 2:45 on the tape and you'll see the reporter mention how Pakistani officials say they originally thought that one of their own choppers had crashed. He goes on to make it sound as though the crash of the helo (or more likely the sound of the SEALs blowing it up) is what gave the Pakistani military its first hint that something was wrong in Abbottabad that night.

If true, this means that the Pakistani military likely didn't scramble until the very end of the 40-minute raid. It also means that local units in Abbottabad responded to what they thought was a PAF helicopter crash not a combat op. By the time the Pakistanis figured out what had happened at bin Laden's compound the U.S. was long gone. This seems to reinforce the notion that Pakistani officials had no clue the SEALs were coming that night and that they may not have tracked any of their aircraft on radar after they left.

This leaves the following questions:

The first two helicopters into Abbottabad were stealth-modified MH-60s carrying 24 Navy SEALS; what about the two MH-47s that followed them in carrying dozens of support troops, how did those two birds penetrate Pakistani airspace undetected? Were Pakistan's radars jammed while the MH-47s flew extremely at low altitude or were the Chinooks modified to be stealthy as well? I mean, why use two stealth helicopters (and maybe a stealth drone) when the other half of your assault fleet is unstealthy?

Or maybe senior Pakistani air force officials ordered to simply look the other way if the Chinooks appeared on radar.

Story Continues
DefenseTech