Posted on Jan 11, 2016
Should the Army have gotten rid of the OH-58D "Kiowa" Helicopter?
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Aviation
Flight School - Rotary Wing
153A: Rotary Wing Aviator (Aircraft Nonspecific)
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 7
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The OH-58D fills an important mission role. There is no other aircraft in the current inventory that fills that role. Until they have a replacement aircraft to fulfill that role, they shouldn't get rid of it. Part of the problem is that Gen Cody killed the RAH-66 Comanche program. That aircraft was purpose designed to take over the Band-Aid that the OH-58D program always was. If the 58D is mothballed (and it shouldn't be), then I foresee that the UH-72 Lakota will start sprouting extra equipment (like a mast mounted site), 2.75" rocket pods, and/or externally mounted machine guns.
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The KW was a great aircraft that held its own despite being underpowered and overworked. I feel the loss of the 58 is a loss to aviation as a whole. The war in Iraq showed that the Kiowa was more effective in an urban setting than the much larger Apache. I love my airframe but there are things it does well, and there are things that other aircraft do well. The 58 had its place in the mission set, but without a power plant/drivetrain upgrade and slimming of the overal airframe, it was doomed.
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SSG Lenzie Bailey
I hate the fact that they didn't open up the limitations a little bit more. The acft was capable of doing a little bit more than what she was legally allowed to. I know it looked good with the armt systems on them. I was brought up on the vanilla model which nowadays with the technology the way it is. You don't need all the boxes I used to have to remove to put that blasted standpipe in loI. But that would make the acft lighter and you wouldn't have had to trade gas for bullets. Let us stay masked in the tree line or off at a distance and lase for the 64's or our old school mission the arty guys.
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SFC (Join to see)
Agreed. The fox model with the new transmission and avionics seemed very promising, I think cancelling it was short sighted
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SSG Lenzie Bailey
I personally believe the failed Comanche project sealed our fate also. I remember getting into a debate in the mess hall in Kosovo with our TF Commander. He was a Brigadier General by then but I knew him vaguely from Ft Bragg years prior to that. I told him I didn't think the Comanche wasn't going to be the replacement for the D Model with all the issues it was having during the test phase. He told me that l need to get out of my old stubborn ways and prepare myself for the new Army Aviation. So since that failed then all of the guys like him probably voted for the 58 to get canned also out of spite lol!
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I remember "Zipper Suited Sun Gods" that flew them always griped about the lack of power, height/weight limitation of the crew, and about everything else. So my take was it did the job barely, hung around longer than it should, and didn't have any protection. So if you're into a LOCH and a half, it was great. Funny, I didn't hear much from the Gods saying they wanted to fly something else.
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