MH-6 Little Bird

Infobox Aircraft
name= MH-6/AH-6 Little Bird


caption= AH-6 Little Bird helicopter
type= Light observation helicopter
manufacturer= MD Helicopters
designer=
first flight=
introduced=
retired=
status= Active service
primary user= United States Army
more users=
produced=
number built=
unit cost=
developed from = OH-6 Cayuse
variants with their own articles= MD 500 Defender

The MH-6 Little Bird, and its attack variant, the AH-6, is a single-engine light helicopter used for special operations aviation.

Originally based on a modified OH-6A, it were later based on the MD 500E, with a single five-bladed main rotor. The newest version, the MH-6M, is based on the MD 530F and has a single, six-bladed main rotor and four-bladed tail rotor.

Development

In 1960, the United States Army issued Technical Specification 153 for a Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) capable of fulfilling various roles: personnel transport, escort and attack missions, casualty evacuation and observation. Twelve companies took part in the competition and Hughes Tool Company's Aircraft Division submitted the Model 369. Two designs, those submitted by Fairchild-Hiller and Bell, were selected as finalists by the Army-Navy design competition board, but the U.S. Army later included the helicopter from Hughes as well.

The first Model 369 prototype flew on February 27, 1963. Originally designated as the YHO-6A according to the Army's designation system, the aircraft was redesignated as the YOH-6A in 1962 when the Department of Defense created a Joint designation system for all aircraft. Five prototypes were built, fitted with a 252 shp Allison T63-A-5A, [ [http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_library%5CrgMakeModel.nsf/0/5A9ADCCEA6C0C4E286256D3900494A77/$FILE/H3WE.pdf FAA Document in PDF format] ] and delivered to the U.S. Army at Camp Rucker, Alabama to compete against the other 10 prototype aircraft submitted by Bell and Fairchild-Hiller. In the end, Hughes won the competition [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Hughes/Aero44.htm] and the Army awarded a contract for production in May 1965, with an initial order for 714 which was later increased to 1300 with an option on another 114. Production reached 70 helicopters in the first month.

This agile, unarmed helicopter, is specially outfitted with outboard "benches" designed to ferry up to three commandos on each side. There is also an attack variant, the AH-6. Painted black to facilitate nighttime operations, this small aircraft can conduct rapid insertions and extractions of special operations forces into areas its larger brother, the MH-60 Black Hawk, can not.

Operational history

Shortly after production began, the OH-6 began to demonstrate what kind of an impact it would have on the world of helicopters. The OH-6 set 23 world records for helicopters in 1966 for speed, endurance and time to climb. On March 23, 1966, Jack Schwiebold set the closed circuit distance record in a YOH-6A at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He flew without landing for 1,739.96 mi (2,800.20 km). And on April 7, 1966, Robert Ferry set the long distance world record for helicopters. He flew from Culver City, California to Ormond Beach, Florida, covering a total of 1,923.08 nm (2,213.04 mi, 3,561.55 km).

Production OH-6A craft entered service in 1966, arriving in the Vietnam War theater. The pilots dubbed the little helicopter Loach, a word created by pronunciation of the acronym of the program that spawned the aircraft, LOH. The helicopter quickly became noted for high performance and low noise due its four-bladed rotor and small size. The OH-6A would act as a scout to spot enemy positions, while only lightly armed with a fixed minigun. The most common configuration had an observer/gunner either in the left seat or in the rear seat. Most commonly, the Loach worked in conjunction with another OH-6A or an AH-1G. A pair of OH-6s was sometimes known as a "white team", while an element of AH-1 Cobras was referred to as a "red team". An OH-6 and an AH-1 operating together comprised a "pink team".

160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment

Following the April 1980 failure of Operation Eagle Claw, it was determined that the US Army lacked aircraft and crews who were trained and prepared to perform special operations missions. (Marine pilots and Navy helicopters had to be used.) To remedy this shortcoming, the Army began developing a special aviation task force to prepare for the next attempt to rescue the hostages; Operation Honey Badger.

Task Force 160

The architects of the task force identified the need for a small helicopter to land in the most restrictive locations and that was also easily transported on Air Force transport aircraft. They chose the OH-6A scout helicopter to fill that role, and it became known as the Little Bird compared to the other aircraft in the task force, the UH-60A and the CH-47C. As a separate part of the project, armed OH-6As were being developed at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

The pilots selected to fly the OH-6A helicopters came from the 229th Attack Helicopter Battalion and were sent to the Mississippi Army National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) at Gulfport, Mississippi, for two weeks of qualification training in the aircraft. When the training was completed, C-141 aircraft transported the aircraft and crews to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for two weeks of mission training. The mission training consisted of loading onto C-130 transport aircraft which would then transport them to forward staging areas over routes as long as 1000 nautical miles. The armed OH-6 aircraft from Fort Rucker joined the training program in the fall of 1980.

Operation Honey Badger was canceled after the hostages were released on 20 January 1981, and for a short while, it looked as if the task force would be disbanded and the personnel returned to their former units. But the Army decided that it would be more prudent to keep the unit in order to be prepared for future contingencies. The task force, which had been designated as Task Force 158, was soon formed into the 160th Aviation Battalion. The OH-6A helicopters used for transporting personnel became the MH-6 aircraft of the Light Assault Company and the armed OH-6As became the AH-6 aircraft of the Light Attack Company. [http://www.nightstalkers.com/history/1.html]

Operation Prime Chance

On 24 July 1987, a Kuwaiti oil tanker, reflagged as the "Bridgeton" and escorted by U.S. Navy warships, struck a mine in the Persian Gulf. It became apparent that more than escort ships would be required to guard merchant ships. The U.S. military deployed the MH-6 and AH-6 aircraft from the 160th Aviation Battalion to provide surveillance and patrols in cooperation with other U.S. special operations units in Operation Prime Chance.

Two MH-6 and four AH-6 aircraft were initially deployed and designated as Detachment 160 Aviation Group (DET 160 AVGP). The MH-6 aircraft carried Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) and a videotape system which gave them excellent ability to detect and identify targets, then direct the armed AH-6s. The AH-6 helicopters were armed with 7.62 miniguns and 2.75-inch rockets. Initially, the aircraft patrolled in teams (call sign "SEABAT") that waited for U.S. Navy SH-2s to direct them to the targets. Later, to preserve the aircraft and crews from fatigue and wear, the SEABAT teams remained on the ship's deck until a contact was identified.

At 10 p.m. on 21 September 1987, the captain of the USS Jarrett launched a SEABAT team (an MH-6 and two AH-6s) to check out reports of Iranian minelaying. The team found the "Iran Ajr", an amphibious landing ship equipped with minelaying racks. The MH-6 confirmed that the "Iran Ajr" was laying mines, the AH-6s opened fire, causing the crew to abandon ship. The vessel was subsequently boarded and captured.

On the evening of 8 October 1987, a Revolutionary Guard Corps Boghammar and two Boston Whaler boats were detected by an SH-2. The SEABAT team was launched and as the MH-6 drew near to investigate, the Boghammar opened fire, the first of a series of engagements by both AH-6s and the MH-6 (recently armed with a minigun). The Boghammar launched two Stinger missiles at the helicopters, but eventually all three boats were sunk.

For the remainder of the operation, it was decided that barges set up as mobile sea bases (MSB) would facilitate the operation of the special operations forces. The Hercules and the Wimbrown VII were leased to provide these bases and the SEABAT teams began operating from the barges.

In early 1988, it was decided that modified U.S. Army OH-58D helicopters, fitted with weapons, would replace the SEABAT teams. On 24 February 1988, a team of two AHIP helicopters replaced the SEABAT team on the Wimbrown VII but it would be several months (June 1988) before the SEABAT team aboard the barge Hercules would be relieved by another AHIP detachment. [http://www.nightstalkers.com/history/4.html]

Operation Just Cause

On 17 December 1989, 9 MH-6s, 11 AH-6G/Js, 19 UH/MH-60As were flown by Air Force C-5 Galaxy airlifters to Howard AFB's Hangar 3. After dark, on 19 December, the aircraft were rolled out to prepare for Operation Just Cause.

Before the main invasion force arrived in Panama City, Panama, two MH-6s supported by two AH-6s landed at Torrijos-Tocumen Airport to insert of a beacon and combat controllers. Four other AH-6s conducted pre-assault attacks on the Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) Headquarters, "La Comandancia", adjoining the heavily populated "El Chorrillo" neighborhood in downtown Panama City. One of the AH-6s was damaged by ground fire and and crashlanded in the Comandancia compound. The two pilots, pinned down by small-arms fire for two hours, eventually made their way back to friendly forces, taking a PDF soldier prisoner along the way.

Other AH-6s escorted MH-6s on a rooftop rescue operation conducted at "Cárcel Modelo", a prison adjacent to La Comandancia. In Operation Acid Gambit, the aircraft approached the prison. Under fire from a nearby apartment house, the Little Birds landed on the roof, dropped off the rescue team, and lifted off. Upon their return, heavy smoke made it tough to find the roof and the helicopters took heavy fire from a cellblock about 50 to 60 feet from the landing site. Maj. Richard Bowman, a copilot, took a round in the elbow. His pilot took over the controls and landed the aircraft. The aircraft picked up the rescue personnel and headed back toward Howard AFB. But one MH-6 lost power as it left the roof, and crashed in the street below with minor injuries to the passengers, who were helped from the crash site by U.S. infantry soldiers.

Elsewhere, four AH-6s provided fire support for the airborne assault at Rio Hato Airfield, supported by an MH-60 which operated as a Forward Arming and Refuel Point (FARP). Two nine-man teams from the 160th participated in the airborne assaults of Torrijos-Tocumen Airfield and Rio Hato Airfield, and were dropped from Air Force C-141s to set up FARPs, 12-foot platforms with HE-rocket and minigun ammunition, parts and replacements for the miniguns, and fuel and refueling pumps, hoses, etc. But the FARP dropped at Rio Hato landed out of reach in a marsh, forcing the team to “wet wing” refuel from the MH-60.

The Rio Hato mission originally included nine other MH-60s and four MH-6s. Several hours prior to H-hour, these aircraft and crews were instead sent to support a raid near Colon, Panama, a key PDF stronghold where PDF leaders were believed to be. At H-hour, the helicopters conducted an air assault on a beach house along the coast of Colon. It was during this mission that the first 160th soldiers to die in combat perished when their AH-6 was shot down.

Another force of eight MH-60s and four MH-6s were on strip alert to conduct follow-on raids should the need arise.

After these initial missions, elements of the 160th provided support to special operations forces securing outlying areas, recovering weapons caches, and "hunt for Elvis" — the phrase the men of the 160th used to refer to the search for General Manuel Noriega. Four MH-60s, two MH-6s, two AH-6s, and two MH-47s was moved to Ft. Sherman in the north for operations in and around Colon.

The 160th conducted numerous air assault missions over the next two weeks, and on 3 January 1990, the majority of the force went back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. [http://www.nightstalkers.com/history/6.html]

Operation Gothic Serpent

[
Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.]

MH-6 Little Birds were part of the initial assault on the Olympic Hotel in the Bakara Market of Mogadishu, Somalia. The MH-6s conducted rooftop insertions of Delta Force soldiers.

After the shootdown of the MH-60A, call sign "Super 61", by an RPG, an MH-6 Little Bird, call sign "Star 41", piloted by CW4 Keith Jones and CW3 Karl Maier, landed in the street next to the downed MH-60 and attempted to evacuate the casualties. Jones went to assist survivors, successfully pulling two soldiers into the Little Bird, while Maier laid down suppressive fire from the cockpit with his individual weapon. Under intense ground fire, the MH-6 departed with its crew and survivors. [http://www.nightstalkers.com/history/9.html]

During the night, AH-6J gunships provided fire support to Rangers and Delta Force operators who were in defensive positions around the crash site of "Super 61" and under constant fire from Warlord Mohammad Farrah Aidid's militia members. [http://www.nightstalkers.com/history/9.html]

Variants

For OH-6 and TH-6 variants, see OH-6 Cayuse.

;AH-6C :Special Forces attack version. Modified OH-6A to carry weapons and operate as a light attack aircraft for the 160th SOAR(A).;EH-6E :Special Forces electronic warfare, command-post version.;MH-6E :Improved attack helicopter used by US Army special forces units, and stealthy light attack and transport helicopter for US Army special forces units.;AH-6F :Special Forces attack version.;AH-6G :Special Forces attack version.;MH-6H :Special Forces version.;AH/MH-6J :Improved special forces transport and attack versions. Updated light attack helicopter based on the MD 530MG and equipped with an improved engine, FLIR, and a GPS/inertial navigation system.;AH/MH-6M :Also occasionally referred to as the Mission Enhanced Little Bird (MELB), it is a highly modified version of the MD 530 series commercial helicopter. [ [http://news.soc.mil/factsheets/160th_LittleBird.pdf A/MH-6M Little Bird Helicopters] , U.S. Army Special Operations Command.] ;A/MH-6X:An AH/MH-6M MELB helicopter modified for use as a UAV. It builds upon experienced gained through development of the Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) Demonstrator, which is a civil MD 530F modified for autonomous UAV flight. [cite web|url=http://www.boeing.com/ids/news/2006/q4/061009b_nr.html|title=Boeing Manned/Unmanned Light Helicopter Makes First Flight|work=Current News Release|location=St. Louis|publisher=Boeing IDS|date=9 October 2006|accessdate=2007-05-01]

Operators

* United States Army
* Iraqi Army

pecifications

aircraft specifications

plane or copter?=copter
jet or prop?=prop

ref=MD 530F data [ [http://www.mdhelicopters.com/helicopters/pdf/MD530FTechSpecs/530F_Overview.pdf MD 530F Overview] , MD Helicopters.] [ [http://www.mdhelicopters.com/helicopters/pdf/MD530FTechSpecs/530performance_specif3.pdf MD 530F Performance Specifications] , MD Helicopters.]

crew= 2
capacity=
payload main=
payload alt=
length main= 32.6 ft
length alt= 9.80 m
span main= 27.4 ft
span alt= 8.30 m
height main= 9.8 ft
height alt= 3.0 m
area main=
area alt=
airfoil=
empty weight main= 1,591 lb
empty weight alt= 722 kg
loaded weight main=
loaded weight alt=
useful load main= 1,509 lb
useful load alt= 684 kg
max takeoff weight main= 3,100 lb
max takeoff weight alt= 1,406 kg
more general=Fuselage Length: 24.6 ft (7.50 m)
*Fuselage Width: 4.6 ft (1.4 m)
*Rotor systems: 6 blades on main rotor, 4 blades on tail rotor
*Useful Fuel capacity: 62 U.S. gal (242 L) or 403 lb (183 kg)

engine (prop)= One Allison T63-A-5A or T63-A-700
type of prop= turboshaft
number of props= 1
power main= 650 hp
power alt= 485 kW
power original= - full rated power

Power, derated: for takeoff: 425 shp (317 kW); continuous: 375 shp (280 kW)

max speed main= 152 knots
max speed alt= 175 mph, 282 km/h
cruise speed main= 135 knots
cruise speed alt= 155 mph, 250 km/h
stall speed main=
stall speed alt=
never exceed speed main=
never exceed speed alt=
range main= 232 nmi
range alt= 430 km, 267 mi
range more=at 5,000 ft
combat radius main=
combat radius alt=
combat radius more=
ferry range main=
ferry range alt=
ferry range more=
ceiling main= 18,700 ft
ceiling alt= 5,700 m
climb rate main= 2,061 ft/min
climb rate alt= 10.5 m/s
loading main=
loading alt=
thrust/weight=
power/mass main=
power/mass alt=
more performance=

guns= Two 7.62 mm M134 Minigun; Two .50 cal (12.7 mm) GAU-19
missiles= Four Hellfire missiles
rockets= Two 2.75 in (70 mm) Hydra 70 rocket pods

avionics=

References

ee also

aircontent
related=
* OH-6 Cayuse
* MD Helicopters MD 500
* MD Helicopters Defender

similar aircraft=
* OH-58 Kiowa
* Bell ARH-70
* PZL SW-4
* Mil Mi-34

lists=
* List of active United States military aircraft

see also=
* U.S. Helicopter Armament Subsystems

External links

* [http://news.soc.mil/factsheets/160th_LittleBird.pdf US Army SOC A/MH-6 fact sheet]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/mh-6.htm MH-6] and [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ah-6.htm AH-6 pages on GlobalSecurity.org]
* [http://www.specialoperations.com/Aviation/Little_Birds/default2.html AH/MH-6J "Little Bird" page on specialoperations.com]
* [http://avia.russian.ee/helicopters_eng/mcdonnel-500.php Hughes OH-6 "Cayuse" / MD 500 / MD 530 helicopter page on avia.russian.ee]
* [http://www.warbirdregistry.org/heloregistry/oh6registry.html Warbird Registry - OH-6 Cayuse] - Tracking the histories of OH-6 that survived military service.
* [http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q4/081007b_nr.html Boeing Announces New Rotorcraft Program: AH-6] , Boeing, 7 October 2008.