Media reports and photos of the tail section of a US helicopter that crashed during the raid suggested that the SEALs used a stealth helicopter. But it wasn't the Pentagon's most advanced stealth chopper, Pfarrer says.
"The Ghost Hawk helicopters were among the most highly classified aircraft possessed by the US military,” according to Pfarrer.
They are only used by SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force operators. “They were Jedi rides, so secret they were only flown at night, and kept in locked, guarded hangars during the day. The Ghost Hawks were so low noise that the SEALs joked that they flew in ‘whisper mode.’ The newest version of the stealth helos, the GEN 3s, were even quieter than the previous editions called Stealth Hawks. The Ghost Hawks were invisible to radar and emitted zero electromagnetic radiation. They had shielded exhausts so they put off not much more heat than a Harley motorcycle. They were only used on the most important missions.”
At the last minute of the bin Laden operation, however, commanders made the decision to use the older version of the stealth helicopters, for fear that if the Pakistani air forces interdicted the Ghost Hawks, they would have been stuck in a difficult situation. The US could not fire on Pakistani aircraft, because Pakistan is an ally.
So the “pilots would have two choices: surrender and land, or be blown out of the sky. In either case, America’s most precious technological secrets would be exposed. Very reluctantly, the decision was made to use the older Stealth Hawk models, though they were smaller, had less range, and could carry fewer operators.”
