OH-58 Kiowa
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The OH-58 Kiowa scout is a helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron. The OH-58's primary missions are reconnaissance, surveillance, and intelligence gathering. Various models of this helicopter have been deployed by the United States Army, the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm and the Australian Army in campaigns from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War.
The OH-58B was an export version for the Austrian army.
The OH-58D Kiowa Warrior has the additional mission capability of target acquisition and laser designation. It can operate during the day or night and in limited adverse weather. To carry out Operation Prime Chance, the escort of oil tankers during the Iran-Iraq War, OH-58Ds were retrofitted to carry air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Currently, in the U.S. Army, the Kiowas are used to scope out targets, then call for AH-64 Apaches to destroy them.
Following the U.S. Army's naming convention for helicopters, the Kiowa is named after a Native American tribe.
The original program prototype was not taken up by the army, but spawned the civilian Bell 206, better known as the "JetRanger" before eventually seeing military use as the Kiowa. The JetRanger went on to become the most widely used commercial helicopter to date, some logging as many as 30,000 hours on their airframes.
Specifications (OH-58D Kiowa Warrior)
Operators
External links
- U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command
- [FOXNews] article with some information on an OH-58 Kiowa apparently shot down in Iraq on January 13th, 2006.
- [Eye in the Sky; Kiowa and Sioux helicopters] - link verified January 31 2006
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