Flightline: 65/TBD

"user314" (user314) 10/23/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, planelopnik history, Helicopterlopnik

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The Bell OH-58 Kiowa traces its history back to the US Army’s 1960 Light Observation Helicopter program. Thirteen companies entered the competition, with Bell advancing its Model 206, also known as Design 250 (D-250). The Army announced that Bell, Hughes and Fairchild/Hiller had won the initial competition, and designated the 206 as the YHO-4 (later changed to YOH-4A).

YHO-4 prototype in flight

The OH-4 lost out to the Hughes !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but Bell took the Model 206 and began to refine the chopper, adding 16 cubic feet of room in the back as well as making it a little more aesthetically pleasing, resulting in the Model 206A, nicknamed the JetRanger. In 1967, Hughes was unable to meet contractual obligations for the OH-6, and the US Army reopened the LOH competition. Bell submitted a bid with the new 206A, under cutting Hughes and wining the contract. The Model 206A was designated OH-58, and, following Army custom to name helicopters after Native American tribes, was named the Kiowa.

OH-58A belonging to the Australian Army at Nui Dat in 1971

Production OH-58A models began arriving in Vietnam in August of 1969, in many cases operating alongside the OH-6s that they ostensibly replaced. Many were fitted with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! s, giving them some measure of firepower. In addition to orders from the US Army, eight Kiowas were leased to the Australian Army, and 74 were delivered to the Canadian Armed Forces as the CH-136 Kiowa. Beginning in 1978, OH-58As were converted to OH-58C standards.

The OH-58B was an export version for the Austrian Air Force, and was also produced under license as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! CA-32 for the Australian Army and Navy.

Austrian Air Force OH-58Bs

The OH-58C was fitted with more powerful engines, as well as IR suppressors to shield the exhaust from SAMs. The OH-58C were also fitted with the passive w !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , blades fixed to the upper and lower fuselage to cut wires before they entangle the skids or rotor shaft; the Kiowa was first helicopter so equipped. OH-58Cs were equipped with larger instrument panels, and the panels and cabin lights were compatible with night vision goggles. The Kiowa were the first U.S. Army scout helicopter to be equipped with the AN/APR-39 radar detector, a system which allowed the crew to know if they were being “painted” by enemy radars.

US Army OH-58C at the World Helicopter Championship in 1986

In 1975, the US Army, anticipating the replacement of the AH-1 Cobra by the AH-64 Apache, developed requirements for a new Advanced Scout Helicopter which would:

“...possess an extended target acquisition range capability by means of a long-range stabilized optical subsystem for the observer, improved position location through use of a computerized navigation system, improved survivability by reducing aural, visual, radar, and infrared signatures, and an improved flight performance capability derived from a larger engine to provide compatibility with attack helicopters”

Congress provided no funds for the ASH program, however, and in 1979 the Army decided to shelve it in favor of the Near-Term Scout Helicopter (NTSH) program, which would utilize existing designs fitted with Mast-Mounted Sights (MMS) instead. Bell offered their Model 406 while Hughes proposed an upgraded !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the improved civilian version of the OH-6. In 1981 the NTSH had resulted in the Army Helicopter Improvement Program (AHIP), and in September of that year Bell was awarded a development contract for the OH-58D.

Diagram of an OH-58D showing subsystems and contractors

The most distinctive feature of the OH-58D Kiowa is the MMS, originally developed by McDonnell Douglas, through mergers production of the MMS has passed to Boeing, then to Leonardo DRS. Perched atop a pylon above the rotors, the beach-ball shaped sight is gyroscopically stabilized and mounts a TV camera with low-light capability, a thermal imager, and a laser rangefinder/designator.

The OH-58D’s MMS

Being mounted above the main body of the helicopter, the MMS allows a Kiowa to hide behind a terrain feature, but maintain surveillance of a target, or, if working in concert with an attack chopper, the spotter can designate a target for the AH-64's Hellfire missile while both helos are behind cover.

OH-58Ds were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1988 as part of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the escort of oil tankers during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and were also involved in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the 1989 invasion of Panama. As part of DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM, 115 Kiowas were deployed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, achieving the lowest ratio of maintenance hours to flight hours of any combat helicopter in the war. Based of experiences from these conflicts, the Army began the Kiowa Warrior program, which involved fitting first new build aircraft and later retrofitting existing OH-58Ds with modular weapons pylons on both sides of the aircraft, allowing the mounting of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .50 caliber machine gun pods, Hydra-70 unguided rocket pods, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for self defense and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, allowing the Kiowa Warriors to act as armed scouts.

An OH-58D Kiowa Warrior operating from the USS Lake Erie during a joint-training operation.

OH-58Ds were again deployed during !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Iraq and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Afghanistan, amassing 72 and 80 flight hours per month respectively. This also marked the last combat deployment of the Kiowa, which was retired beginning in 2013, with the last OH-58C trainers expected to be withdrawn some time in 2022.

Replacement of the OH-58 was first anticipated with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program in the early 1980s, but the 2004 cancellation of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! undid those plans. Cost overruns also killed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 2008, which was also due to replace the Kiowa. In 2012, the Army tried again with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program, which looked at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as possible replacements, as well as the OH-58F, which incorporated new engines as well as numerous avionics upgrades, as well as a new nose-mounted sensor array in place of the MMS.

The OH-58F prototype at an expo

The AAS program fell to cost issues, and the Army divested itself of the Kiowa fleet as a cost-saving measure, with the scout duties carried by drones and the AH-64E. In 2018 the Army began the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (FARA) program, with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! competing. On 25 March 2020, the US Army selected Bell and Sikorsky to move forward to develop flying prototypes, with expectations on having a fly-off some time in 2022.

Sovande > user314 10/23/2020 at 11:34

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This flew over me yesterday. I was able to tell it's a helicopter,but that's as far as I got. The doors were open and there was dude kinda leaning out. 

user314 > Sovande 10/23/2020 at 12:12

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Looks like some flavor of H-60 Blackhawk .

Sovande > user314 10/23/2020 at 12:26

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Amazing! That sure look like it! I was pretty close to the Pentagon at the time.

Here is a guy flying below the tree line not long ago. That was a cool thing to see.

user314 > Sovande 10/23/2020 at 12:31

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Hmm, in that case it might have even been one of the HMX-1 VH-60s:

though it doesn’t look like it has the radar blister on the nose. Probably just a regular UH-60 then .

Sovande > user314 10/23/2020 at 12:38

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It was not those, I see them all the time and the white stands out a lot. The one I saw yesterday was all matte green.

These blue ones are around from time to time too.

The word around here is that when you see three blue helicopters around DC, one has the President in it.

InFierority Complex > Sovande 10/23/2020 at 12:52

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1st Helicopter Squadron probably? They are for VIps and the like but travelling around in a Huey seems to be beneath a President.

Sovande > InFierority Complex 10/23/2020 at 13:00

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That’s certainly possible.

Here’s a group of 6 of them from a few years ago.

ttyymmnn > Sovande 10/23/2020 at 14:52

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I snagged these on a trip to DC back in 2014.

Sovande > ttyymmnn 10/23/2020 at 15:01

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Oh nice. I tried to get a picture of two Osprey flying down the river the other day, but I was driving and thought better of it. I always think those are cool to see.

Your pictures are cool!  There is a lot of helicopter traffic up and down the river and from the Pentagon so it seems like there ride always something to see.

ttyymmnn > Sovande 10/23/2020 at 15:12

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Thanks. It’s funny, aviation photography is a super big hobby for me (I’d call it a passion, but I don’t do it as much as I’d like), and as I look at those photos from six years ago, I think, “Gee, I could have done this better....”

One of the biggest things about that sort of shooting is location. Sometimes you just have to get lucky, but planning increases your luck. I got these at my favorite spot down by the Austin airport. I haven’t been to there in more than a year though.

The viewing spot is right next to the TX DOT hangar. I’ve also got lots of pictures of planes , too.

InFierority Complex > user314 10/23/2020 at 15:25

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A really underappreciated machine and overshadowed by the Apache and A-10. Is the price you pay for being a reconnaissance platform I guess.

Sovande > ttyymmnn 10/23/2020 at 15:42

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Oh that’s cool!

ttyymmnn > user314 10/24/2020 at 00:45

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O/T: Here’s another one for your Bicentennial collection.

InFierority Complex > Sovande 10/24/2020 at 09:49

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That's cool to see so much activity in the air. Thank you for sharing

user314 > ttyymmnn 10/26/2020 at 12:16

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Where’s that pic from? I’d like to use it for a post.

ttyymmnn > user314 10/26/2020 at 13:28

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It’s from this guy’s Flickr . He claims that all of the photos are © free, but I’m not so sure. Many are old NASA or military photos, but there are many others that are not. I don’t know if he took them himself, or if he just collected them. It’s entirely possible that he did.  Either way, it’s a REALLY good collection of photos.