Irrelevance of special operations stealth aircraft?

[Silencer1]

Forum contains a topic, dedicated to the helicopter with some unusual structrural elements, possibly for low observability, crashed during raid on Osama Bin Laden.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12597.0.html

33 pages of discussions and last post - in 2015.

Perhaps, this means not only the lack of new data about such stealth spec-ops helicopter, but the decreasing the interest to the whole idea of pin-point incursion operations?
In 1990s there were a some action movies, where team of special operators, solve all problems, using some sophisticated aircraft and weapons, striking bad guys inside the most fortified and guarded hideouts.

Are all these features seems effective in today's world?

There were a lot of projects in the past, for example, in USA dedicatedly designed for special opeartions or invincible reconnaisance over opponents' territory. Now, only SR-72 and drones.

Where are 'Remora" from the movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Decision?
Withdrawn from service along with F-117?

 

[DrRansom]

One could say: Absence of Evidence isn't Evidence of Absence.

More concretely, I think your title is correct, but in a different way. The US has conducted special operations missions by the hundreds in the past decade and a half and probably a decent number has used a stealth helicopter. But those missions have produced no strategic or even operational success. Stealth transports have been irrelevant because the SOCOM approach to counter-terrorism has failed. The Bin Laden raid is the exception, it was perhaps the SOCOM approach biggest success, even that hasn't produced anything of long term value.

 

[Dynoman]

According to the book Relentless Strike, by Naylor, the original two Stealth Helicopter designs have been improved upon and a squadron, with 40 personnel based out of Nellis AFB (with helicopters positioned at Tonopah or Area 51) operates as a special operations squadron. The need for these unique helicopters are for deep penetration of denied areas where radar coverage is significant (e.g. Pakistan and Syria, where they have been deployed in the past). Missions requiring 'speed, surprise, and violence of action,' may not necessarily require a stealth aircraft in the mix. If the aircraft were to be used often, a simple mechanical failure or accident could expose the helicopter program and its technologies to its enemies, which may allow them to find ways to circumvent the technology.

 

[quellish]

Forum contains a topic, dedicated to the helicopter with some unusual structrural elements, possibly for low observability, crashed during raid on Osama Bin Laden.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12597.0.html

33 pages of discussions and last post - in 2015.

Perhaps, this means not only the lack of new data about such stealth spec-ops helicopter, but the decreasing the interest to the whole idea of pin-point incursion operations?

It is possible that there is new data about this specific aircraft and its predecessors that has not been posted to that thread because it may then end up published on sites like The Drive, War is Boring, etc. without attribution.

Low observable aircraft continue to be used and continue to be relevant. This helicopter has not only RF and IR stealth but acoustic as well. It was designed for inserting special operations forces with as little warning to the enemy as possible. It continues to be used because of that.

In 1990s there were a some action movies, where team of special operators, solve all problems, using some sophisticated aircraft and weapons, striking bad guys inside the most fortified and guarded hideouts.

Those movies had little basis in reality. That is not how that world operates.

 

[Triton]

We know about the Stealth Hawk because of the wreckage found in the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. The Beast of Kandahar was outed by photographic evidence before the United States Air Force admitted to the existence of the RQ-170. We know details about the bin Laden raid because Navy SEALs couldn't keep a secret and someone similarly outed the Ghost Hawk, the name given to the improved stealth Black Hawk helicopter. There may be other stealth aircraft in the special operations community that have not been similarly outed by a crash and wreckage or photographic evidence or men who have broken their oaths of secrecy.

 

[Silencer1]

Thanks to comments!

When I started topic, my main concern was to prove my impression, that special operations
today became more common (I wonder, if more effective) and didn't require any sophisticated aircraft for landing/extracting of the team.
Wide usage of UAVs for scouting and strikes reshaped conventional spec-ops missions, aren't they?
So now is wider choise, what kind of force use in different situations.

This forum has have a lot of topics, dedicated to projects, that have been abandoend long ago without any actual airframe built. Although "downed chopper" seems to be real, and influenced great interest in the moment of reavealing. Looks, like now there were no interest to it?

Risk to lost exampe of cutting-edge technology during mission presents in each situation, during that such vehicles used.
I'm just read, that after U-2 has been shot down over Cuba it has been decided to use Ryan Firebees into recce mission. There were only two examples built at the moment, and in last moment mission has been stopped - to not expose them.

However, later, during China overflights some of Firebees have been shootdown and even presented on public by China officials.
Does Ryan stopped the development? Not. Did the China advanced in RPV in 1960-70s? Not.

I could be completely wrong in my impression about the special flying vehicles, that designed and ordered by CIA&Co., but as we compare the number of aircraft types now in development/service in USAF, USN - we could see, that it's diversity prevents to addition of competely new types. And the overall number of combat aircraft significantly decresed, too.

We live in very boring time of aviation