Photo: USAF/Airman 1st Class Stephen Pulter
The Sikorsky-made UH-60 Black Hawk is one of the oldest (and impressive) helicopters still in operation. Born in the mid-1970s, it became one of the favorite workhorses for troops in need of rapid deployment in hot areas.
Some 4,000 of them were made since introduction, and its versatility meant that in no time the Black Hawk was to spawn an incredibly diverse range of versions. Depending on who used them and how, the Black Hawk off-shoots ended up working as utility, special purpose, or export variants.
The HH-60G Pave Hawk is a breed of Black Hawk employed by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), that came to be in 1982. It gets its name after the PAVE electronic systems it employs, and its primary task is the insertion and recovery of military personnel and equipment from hot zones.
The helicopter will not be doing this for long though, as the USAF is getting ready to replace this four-decades-old beast with something newer, the Jolly Green II, also a machine that can trace its roots to the mighty Black Hawk family.
The replacement of the Pave Hawk will take some time though, even if some units have already begun retiring them, so for the time being we’re bound to see it in action. Kind of like we do here, where we get to see one in all its aerial might.
This particular beast belongs to the 33rd Rescue Squadron, the same crew that brought us not long ago the incredible image of a couple of U.S. Marines seemingly floating underneath the helicopter’s belly. Based at Kadena Air Base in Japan, the unit traces its roots to the early 1950s, when it was created for search and rescue missions.
As seen here in this aggressive stance, this particular helicopter is flying over Okinawa during a run to support the Remote Island Disaster Exercise 2021 at the beginning of November.
Generally, this bird is a benign apparition, but if need be, it can fight its way out of a bad situation thanks to the pair of 7.62mm or .50 caliber machine guns it has on board. One of them is visible in this image.
The HH-60G Pave Hawk is a breed of Black Hawk employed by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), that came to be in 1982. It gets its name after the PAVE electronic systems it employs, and its primary task is the insertion and recovery of military personnel and equipment from hot zones.
The helicopter will not be doing this for long though, as the USAF is getting ready to replace this four-decades-old beast with something newer, the Jolly Green II, also a machine that can trace its roots to the mighty Black Hawk family.
The replacement of the Pave Hawk will take some time though, even if some units have already begun retiring them, so for the time being we’re bound to see it in action. Kind of like we do here, where we get to see one in all its aerial might.
This particular beast belongs to the 33rd Rescue Squadron, the same crew that brought us not long ago the incredible image of a couple of U.S. Marines seemingly floating underneath the helicopter’s belly. Based at Kadena Air Base in Japan, the unit traces its roots to the early 1950s, when it was created for search and rescue missions.
As seen here in this aggressive stance, this particular helicopter is flying over Okinawa during a run to support the Remote Island Disaster Exercise 2021 at the beginning of November.
Generally, this bird is a benign apparition, but if need be, it can fight its way out of a bad situation thanks to the pair of 7.62mm or .50 caliber machine guns it has on board. One of them is visible in this image.
Google News