The AH-6i "Little Bird"

[cbx]

OH58D, question for you, since you are qualified as an sme in this.

Is a dedicated scout helo necessary? Can similar results be had with multi ship formations of longbows mixed in?

Thank you for your years of service. Every time I read your posts, I think of the night hawk pilot named Bear assigned to rainbow in the tom clancy book rainbow six.

[OH58D]

OH58D, question for you, since you are qualified as an sme in this.

Is a dedicated scout helo necessary? Can similar results be had with multi ship formations of longbows mixed in?

Thank you for your years of service. Every time I read your posts, I think of the night hawk pilot named Bear assigned to rainbow in the tom clancy book rainbow six.

The concept of Scout and Attack rotorcraft goes back to Vietnam, before I was ever in the Army. They were called "Pink Teams" where a Loach would scout and identify targets for AH-1 Cobras. That continued into my day with the OH58D placing a TADS laser identifier on a target, then launching itself or handing off the target to the Apache, or even fixed wing fast movers. Warfare is different today. Now you could use tiny UAVs as the scouts then hand off targets to Predators or Reapers for the kill.

Regarding the Longbow, I always wished the Kiowa Warrior had also been equipped with radar guided Hellfires. I would have enjoyed using that system.

[Turnkey11]

All that crap in the back seat was made in the early 90's, a ipod shuffle would be leaps and bounds over it all today, and you could get your back seats back. Kiowa has plenty of faults, but I think its too early to retire it without a good replacement, something that can carry a full armament and full tank of gas on the same trip would be nice though.

[Turnkey11]

OH58D, question for you, since you are qualified as an sme in this.

Is a dedicated scout helo necessary? Can similar results be had with multi ship formations of longbows mixed in?

Thank you for your years of service. Every time I read your posts, I think of the night hawk pilot named Bear assigned to rainbow in the tom clancy book rainbow six.

Before it was reflagged as 2/6 Cav, 1-25 AVN was an "Attack" battalion comprised of OH-58Ds. They replaced the last Cobras in the Army's inventory in 1999.

[OH58D]

My last unit (2-17 CAV) operated as a stand alone scout-recon-attack squadron. All depends on how the deployment is set up and the mission. Three troops of Kiowa Warriors makes for some nice offensive capability.

[Todd00000]

Kiowa is due to be retired before too long. The Army decided that it's replacement would be a combination of Apache helos and drones, because they apparently weren't able to successfully buy a new scout helicopter. At least two separate attempts fell through due to technical and/or cost reasons.

The Saudis were evidently more successful.

This is it, and the big selling point is now that the Littlebird is made by Boeing it is compatible with the AH-64. I think the 64 gunner is going to be overworked doing his current job and flying a UAV.