Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment

by Tom Clancy

  The shortcomings of the OH-58 were well known to the leadership in Army Aviation; but they had to wait until the contracts for the Apache and the Blackhawk had been let before they could afford to shoehorn the scout program into the budget. By the late 1970s, a plan to upgrade the Army’s aero-scouts had been formulated under the name of Army Helicopter Improvement Program (AHIP). Under the AHIP plan, the winner of a competition between Bell Helicopter-Textron and Hughes Helicopter (now McDonnell Douglas Helicopter) would rebuild existing scout helicopter airframes (to keep down costs) with new engines, avionics, and sensors. In 1981, Bell won with their proposal to rebuild the Army’s fleet of OH-58 Kiowa airframes into the AHIP helicopters. The key to the new helicopter’s capability was the McDonnell Douglas Mast-Mounted Sight (MMS) equipped with a stabilized FLIR, a daylight television camera, and a laser rangefinder and designator for Hellfire and other laser-guided ordnance. By 1985, the first unit of AHIP helicopters was ready to be fielded. And by the time of REFORGER-87, the AHIP Kiowas had made a powerful impression; and commanders from all kinds of units, from field artillery brigades to Apache attack helicopter battalions, were scrambling to get some.

  That might have been the extent of the OH-58D story had it not been for those other bad boys of the Persian Gulf, the Iranians. Towards the end of their eight-year war, both Iran and Iraq launched a campaign of attacks against the tankers carrying each other’s crude oil out of the Persian Gulf. As long as the two belligerents were pumping Exocet guided missiles and rockets into the tankers of their opponents, nobody but Lloyds of London cared. But when the Iranians started attacking tankers servicing the oil trade of other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who at the time were funding Iraq’s war with Iran), that was another story entirely. And in 1987, the government of Kuwait requested the support of the United States to maintain free passage of maritime trade in the waters of the Persian Gulf.

  Shortly afterwards, the U.S. Navy began a long-term operation to escort Kuwaiti tankers (reflagged under American ownership) in and out of the Gulf. Initially, the naval planners thought that Iranian Silkworm missiles and fighter-bombers would be the primary threat to the tankers. This turned out to be a misconception. The misconception was shattered on the very first convoy, when the tanker Bridgeton struck a primitive, though highly effective, contact mine laid by the Iranians. Within a matter of days, the Iranians were driving the American forces crazy with a guerrilla-style naval war fought with mines and with Iranian Revolutionary Guards in speedboats (called “boghammers”) firing rocket-propelled grenades. The U.S. Navy of the 1980s was designed for open-ocean combat with the Russian Navy, not inshore operations against a low-tech, hit-and-run force that did not play by any set of known rules. The Navy needed help; and (would you believe?) they had to ask for it from the U.S. Army.

  After the failed Iranian hostage rescue of 1980, the Army had built up its special-operations capabilities. A special helicopter unit, Task Force (TF) 160 (now known as the 160th Aviation Regiment), was created at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. TF-160 (who call themselves the Nightstalkers; their motto is, “We own the night”) had a number of modified McDonnell Douglas H-6s (designated AH-6s), equipped with thermal-imaging sights, machine guns, and rockets-just the thing for the Persian Gulf, it was thought. And soon, operating off U.S. Navy frigates and anchored barges, they became known as the “Killer Eggs.” The AH-6s turned the tanker war around—their crowning achievement being the capture (and destruction) of the Iran Ajar, a landing craft that was caught laying mines.

  A cutaway of the Bell Helicopter-Textron OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout/attack helicopter.

  JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER

  Unfortunately, because it had to carry out other urgent commitments, the Army recalled its tiny fleet of AH-6s (and their special-ops crews). At the same time, the Army realized that an aircraft was needed to replace the AH-6s in the Persian Gulf, one that could be operated by regular Army Aviation troops.

  In a little while they concluded that an OH-58D, modified to fire air-to-surface weapons, would do very nicely. In September of 1987, under a “black” program (the very existence of the program was secret) code-named PRIME CHANCE, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed Bell Helicopter-Textron to convert fifteen OH-58Ds to an armed configuration. Completing prototyping, testing, and fabrication, the contractor delivered the first two aircraft to the Army less than one hundred days after go-ahead. Within seven months, fifteen PRIME CHANCE aircraft were delivered to the 1st Battalion of the 18th Aviation Brigade (assigned to XVIII Airborne Corps). The modifications to the basic OH-58D included:• The installation of weapons pylons capable of taking AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, air-to-air Stingers, 2.75” Hydra-70 rockets, and a .50-caliber machine-gun pod.

  • Uprating of the maximum continuous power of the engines and transmission from 455 to 510 shp, as well as use of a different lube oil to handle the high temperatures of the Persian Gulf.

  • Installation of a mission equipment package consisting of an ARN-118 TACAN navigational receiver, a video recorder for use with the MMS, and some new avionics (an MIL STD 1553 data bus was already standard on the aircraft).

  • An electronic-countermeasure suite consisting of an AN/APR- 39/44 RWR, and AN/ALQ-144 IR jammer.

  • Ladders for overwater crew rescue.

  • Shielding for the expected electromagnetic interference from the radars of the Navy ships that TF-118 would operate from.

  Operated under the code name of TF-118, the PRIME CHANCE OH-58Ds rapidly swept the Persian Gulf of the Iranian forces harassing the tanker trade. After only a few engagements, the Iranian boghammers and mining vessels apparently decided not to mix it up anymore with the TF-118/Navy team. Shortly afterwards, the Iranians and Iraqis reverted to firing SCUD missiles on each other’s cities—while negotiating an armistice. In 1989, as the last convoy escorted by the U.S. Navy left the Persian Gulf, the last U.S. asset in the Gulf was an airborne PRIME CHANCE OH-58D watching the back door. So effective was the performance of the PRIME CHANCE OH-58Ds, in early 1990 the Secretary of the Army ordered that all 243 of the Army’s OH-58Ds be armed like the PRIME CHANCE aircraft, and that another eighty-one more be bought to meet the demand for the little helicopter with the big eye.

  The dust from the Kuwait tanker escort operation had hardly settled when Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Kuwait in August of 1990. Immediately, the fifteen PRIME CHANCE aircraft (now assigned to the 4th Squadron of the 17th Cavalry, XVIII Airborne Corps), as well as the rest of the OH-58D population, were sent to the Persian Gulf to serve in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The PRIME CHANCE birds reverted to their nautical haunts of the tanker war, operating off barges and Oliver Hazard Perry-class (FFG-7) guided-missile frigates. Of particular note was the service of a pair of PRIME CHANCE OH-58s assigned to operate off of the USS Nicholas (FFG-47). Starting in late January 1991, the two Kiowas did everything from armed reconnaissance, to destroying a Silkworm missile site, to sinking Iraqi patrol boats. The record of their landlocked AHIP cousins was equally distinguished: scouting and spotting for the Apaches, “painting” laser spots on targets for Copperhead rounds, night scouting along the front, and target-spotting /handoff to fixed-wing aircraft. Through all of their Persian Gulf operations, from 1988 to the end of Desert Storm, not one OH-58D was lost to enemy fire. In recognition of the growing reputation of the armed OH-58D, it was renamed the Kiowa Warrior, to reflect its achievements in a short and adventurous career.

  What is the production OH-58D Kiowa Warrior all about? As you walk up to one, your first thought might well be that the sleek lines of the original Model 206 have been ruined by all the antennas, wire cutters, and that awkward ball at the top of the rotor head, the Mast-Mounted Sight (MMS). But of course, all that stuff (and some other stuff) is what gives the Kiowa Warrior its special character.

  A cutaway of the McDonnell Douglas Mast-Mounted Sight (MMS) used on the OH-58D
Kiowa Warrior scout/attack helicopter.

  JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER

  The MMS itself sits on a special vibration-isolation mount above the four-bladed rotor head. Within the ball-shaped housing are a FLIR thermal-imaging system, a daylight television system, a laser rangefinder, and a laser designator. These systems are tied into the cockpit through a pair of multifunction displays (MFDs). Resembling a miniature 6-inch/15-centimeter green computer screen, the MFD is surrounded by fourteen buttons that bring up various menus and screens (called “pages” in crew jargon) that control and monitor the MMS, navigation, and other flight systems. Depending on the preferences of the users (both flight crew members have one), the MFD can be used as a visual/targeting display for the MMS, to display navigational waypoints, or monitor fuel and weapons status. All of the controls for the weapons and the MMS are located on the controls (cyclic and collective grips), and either crew member can fly the aircraft, with the copilot operating the MMS and the pilot firing the weapons. For example, the controls on the pilot’s cyclic grip include such things as weapons select-and-fire buttons, MMS controls, trim controls, and MFD controls.

  The cockpit itself shows its light helicopter lineage: It is a tight squeeze for a big passenger. The middle cabin of the OH-58D has been turned into an avionics bay, and the flight crew (pilot in the right seat, copilot on the left, both with controls) are seated in the front cabin. The seats, while comfortable, are cramped if you are over 6 feet/1.8 meters tall. There is a small heads-up display (HUD) for the pilot. To assist in mission planning and navigation, there is a data loader similar to that in the Apache, so that missions can be set up on a personal computer back at base, then transferred to the helicopter on a memory unit resembling a video game cartridge. In addition, a video recorder has been installed to record all of the information from the MMS cameras and data from the display pages.

  One shortcoming of the Kiowa Warrior is that there is no way to completely seal the cockpit against chemical attack. And in fact, on hot days, the cockpit doors are often removed. To provide for operations under chemical contamination, the crew wears MOPP-IV chemical suits; and there is an onboard system to feed filtered air through the M-43 aviator’s face mask. For night operations, the crew has to use a set of AN/PVS-6 low-light goggles, which are clipped on over their helmets. This provides a limited field of view, somewhat like looking down a cardboard tube. The cockpit instruments and displays have been designed to be usable by the crew when they are in goggles.

  The weapons are carried on a pair of tubular metal pylons attached amidships on the fuselage. A .50-caliber machine-gun pod can be mounted on the left pylon only. Each pylon can carry any of the following:• two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles

  • two air-to-air Stinger missiles

  • one M260 seven-round 2.75”/Hydra-70 rocket-launcher pod

  Any combination of weapons can be carried, though normally the Kiowa Warriors operate in pairs with one aircraft carrying Hellfires (two) and rockets (one pod), and the other loaded with Stingers (two) and a machine-gun pod. Of course, with the MMS, the Kiowa Warrior can designate a target for any kind of laser-guided ordnance. In addition, there is an Airborne Target Handover System (ATHS) which can transmit the coordinates of a ground target by digital data burst, as fixed by the MMS sensors, to any number of aircraft such as Army AH-64s, Air Force A-10 Warthogs, and Marine AV-8B Harriers. There are also direct connections for the TACFIRE artillery-control system (and the AFATDS when it arrives).

  All of these systems, as well as the crew’s voice communications, are fed through a pair of radios (a VHF AN/ARC-186 and a UHF HaveQuick II), which can be controlled through the MFDs. There even is an option the Army has installed on a few aircraft for a real-time video downlink from the MMS to commanders on the ground. Another option is something called a “night pilotage system,” which would involve installation of a small thermal-imaging sight in a turret under the nose. This would function like the PNVS system on the Apache, feeding data to the crew through helmet sights. But for now, budget restrictions will keep these options on hold.

  Flying the Kiowa Warrior is different from the other helicopters we have talked about. Where flying the Apache involves the subtle use of power, and the Blackhawk rides like a friendly Cadillac, the Kiowa Warrior is more like a little imported sports car. Strapping in is similar to getting into the Apache or the Blackhawk.

  Since OH-58D crews often fly with the doors off, there is a lot of noise; and it is vital to have a helmet and flight suit that fit comfortably. When the preflight checks are completed, the pilot just pulls back on the collective, and you’re off. The agility of the Kiowa Warrior is amazing, though it can only do about 120 knots/219.5 kph with the doors on (you lose about 10 knots/18 kph flying with the doors off). But unlike the Apache or the Blackhawk, high dash-speeds are not what the OH-58D is about. Being sneaky is the OH-58D’s strong suit. The Kiowa Warrior’s small size and agility enable it to slip between tree lines, or down a streambed, to sneak up on an opponent. With only the MMS poking above a line of trees or a ridge, the scout is almost invisible; and the four-bladed rotor reduces the blade noise (outside the cockpit). Gone are the days when a chopper like the UH-1 would announce its presence for miles with a distinctive “whump-whump” from its two-bladed rotor. As the crew surveys the scene with the MMS, they can report back to headquarters by voice radio, directly to other aircraft through the ATHS, or to artillery fire units via TACFIRE.

  Normally, the OH-58D will be the eyes for other systems that shoot. But if necessary, it can be a very dangerous shooter itself. Its maneuverability, particularly down low in terrain, means that very few weapons can track or maneuver with it. Setting up a shot with Hellfire, the MMS, and the sensor controls is almost absurdly easy. As an example, my researcher (no pinball wizard) was able to lock on to a window on the top floor of a hotel some 6 miles/10 kilometers away with the MMS; and as the aircraft maneuvered he had no problem keeping the target centered in the sight. Launch of an actual missile would have placed it squarely through that window. And the Kiowa Warrior may be the best existing helicopter for dogfighting other helicopters. While the air-to-air Stinger is a big part of this, maneuverability is the key. Believe it or not, helicopters with four-bladed rigid rotor systems can both roll and loop, and the Kiowa Warrior is quite capable of aerobatics. If anything, the Kiowa Warrior is overpowered and overly sensitive, requiring the calming hand of a thoroughbred jockey to get the most out of it.

  Today, as the armed OH-58Ds roll off the conversion/assembly line at Bell Helicopter’s plant in Fort Worth, Texas, they represent one of the best bargains in the U.S. arsenal. Some fifteen have even been converted into a “low observable” configuration, and operated by the 1st Squadron of the 17th Cavalry. These special Kiowa Warriors, simply known as “upgrade” birds, have redesigned noses to reduce their radar cross-section, as well as radar-absorbent material (RAM) on the side doors, the MMS, the main rotor head, and tail rotor. There is even a special gold-colored windshield coating that apparently has radar absorption qualities. This means that the “ 1 st of the 17th” has fifteen stealthy scout/attack helicopters, capable of going God-knows-where to do God-knows-what. One can only speculate.

  The Army would like Bell to convert a total of some 507 Kiowa Warriors, though only about 366 have been contracted to date—which brings us to a financial dilemma. A newly converted OH-58D coming off the line costs about five million dollars, as opposed to perhaps twelve million dollars for one of the new RAH-66 Comanche scout/attack helicopters soon to come on-line. Which makes Kiowa Warrior look like quite a bargain. The problem with such a comparison is that the OH-58D airframe has limited growth potential, while the RAH-66 design is at the very beginning of its life cycle. What this means is that with the OH-58D you must give careful consideration to adding things to the old Model 206 airframe, while the future of the new RAH-66 is wide open. In other words, as long as buying the OH-58D does not conflict with the Comanc
he program budget, the Army will probably support contracting for the 507 aircraft in the current requirement. But whether they do that or not, they have still managed to acquire the best light scout/attack helicopter in the world today.

  A view of the RAH-66 Comanche. Note the enclosed FANTAIL® tail rotor, and the recessed low-observable engine air intakes. The 20mm gun barrel can pivot down and to the rear for stowage and the missiles are mounted on doors that retract flush with the skin of the aircraft.

  BOEING SIKORSKY

  The RAH-66 Comanche Scout/Attack Helicopter

  Comanche is the top-priority program in the Army. Not just Army Aviation, mind you, but the whole U.S. Army. If you have any doubt of this, consider that the gentleman who told me was the Army Chief of Staff himself. I learned this during a briefing in General Sullivan’s office last summer, as he outlined his plans for the Army of the 21st century. Now, when an old cavalry officer tells you that a helicopter program is the most important thing the Army is buying, it is worth taking a closer look at that program.

  Up in Stratford, Connecticut, in Philadelphia, and around the country, the combined efforts of Boeing Helicopter, Sikorsky Aircraft, and a team of other contractors have just begun assembling composite fuselage parts and integrating electronics for the most important advance in helicopter technology since the turboshaft engine, the RAH-66 Comanche scout/attack helicopter. Comanche is designed to replace the Army’s aging fleet of AH-1, OH-6, and OH-58 helicopters with a single airframe capable of handling all scout/light-attack missions. And when it gets into the force in 2003, it is going to change the face of combat forever.