Entry into service and world records During 1966, the OH-6 entered service with the U.S. Army. Its first overseas deployment, as well as into frontline combat, was the
Vietnam War. The pilots dubbed the new helicopter
Loach, a word created by pronunciation of the LOH (light observation helicopter) acronym of the program that spawned the aircraft. (Loach is also the name for numerous stream-dwelling carnivorous or insectivorous fishes, especially common in South-East Asia, which specialise in hunting among substrates and dense cover.) During 1964, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a memorandum
directing that all U.S. Army
fixed-wing aircraft be transferred to the U.S. Air Force, while the U.S. Army transitioned to solely operating
rotor-wing aircraft. Accordingly, the U.S. Army's fixed-wing airplane, the
Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, which was utilized for
artillery observation and reconnaissance flights, would be replaced by the incoming OH-6A. Early on in the OH-6's career, the type demonstrated its performance in a particularly prominent manner via the setting of 23 individual
world records for helicopters during 1966 in the categories of speed, endurance and time to climb. On 26 March 1966, Jack Schwiebold set the closed circuit distance record in a YOH-6A at
Edwards Air Force Base,
California, flying without landing for 1,739.96 mi (2,800.20 km). Subsequently, on 6 April 1966, Robert Ferry set the long-distance world record for helicopters by flying from Culver City,
California, with over a ton of fuel to Ormond Beach,
Florida, covering a total of 1,923.08
nm (2,213.04 mi, 3,561.55 km) in 15 hours, and near the finish at up to altitude. As of 2021, these records still stand.
Vietnam War In December 1967, the first OH-6As arrived in
South Vietnam. As to indicate the position of concealed enemy ground forces, the observer in the OH-6 would mark the spot using a
smoke grenade, assisting other units in effectively firing upon them. Over time, the effectiveness of this pairing was such that enemies would often decide against firing on the relatively vulnerable OH-6 in fear of the response that would be unleashed by the AH-1. Prior to the arrival of the AH-1, "hunter-killer" teams often relied on the firepower from armed models of the
Bell UH-1 Iroquois utility helicopter. During 1972, a pair of heavily modified OH-6As were utilized by the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) via
Air America for a
covert wire-tapping mission. The aircraft, dubbed
500P (penetrator) by Hughes, began as an
ARPA project, codenamed "Mainstreet", in 1968. Development included test and training flights in
Culver City, California (
Hughes Airport) and at
Area 51 in 1971. In order to reduce their acoustic signature, the helicopters (
N351X and
N352X) received a four-blade 'scissors' style tail rotor (later incorporated into the Hughes-designed
AH-64 Apache), a fifth rotor blade and reshaped rotor tips, a modified exhaust system, and various other performance boosting modifications. During the early 1970s,
Soviet-supplied
SA-7 Grail shoulder-launched
anti-aircraft missiles emerged amongst North Vietnamese troops; one hit could down a Loach, potentially dealing fatal damage before its crew were aware that they were under fire.
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and Task Force 160 Following the April 1980 failure of
Operation Eagle Claw (the attempted rescue of
American hostages in Tehran), it was determined that the military lacked aircraft and crews who were trained and prepared to perform special operations missions. To remedy this shortcoming, the Army began developing a special aviation task force to prepare for the next attempt to rescue the hostages:
Operation Honey Badger. The architects of the task force identified the need for a small helicopter to land in the most restrictive locations and that was also easily transported on Air Force transport aircraft. They chose the OH-6A scout helicopter to fill that role, and it became known as the
Little Bird compared to the other aircraft in the task force, the
MH-60 and the
MH-47. As a separate part of the project, armed OH-6As were being developed at
Fort Rucker, Alabama. The pilots selected to fly the OH-6A helicopters came from the 229th Attack Helicopter Battalion and were sent to the Mississippi Army National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) at Gulfport, Mississippi, for two weeks of qualification training in the rotorcraft. When the training was completed,
C-141 Starlifter airlifters transported both rotorcraft and crews to
Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for two weeks of mission training. The mission training consisted of loading onto
C-130 Hercules transport aircraft which would then transport them to forward staging areas over routes as long as . The armed OH-6s from Fort Rucker joined the training program in the fall of 1980. Operation Honey Badger was canceled after the hostages were released on 20 January 1981, and for a short while, it looked as if the task force would be disbanded and the personnel returned to their former units. But the Army decided that it would be more prudent to keep the unit in order to be prepared for future contingencies. The task force, which had been designated as Task Force 158, was soon formed into the
160th Aviation Battalion. The OH-6A helicopters used for transporting personnel became the MH-6 aircraft of the Light Assault Company and the armed OH-6As became the AH-6 aircraft of the Light Attack Company. On 1 October 1986, to help meet the increasing demands for support, the 1-245th Aviation Battalion from the Oklahoma National Guard, which had 25 AH-6 and 23 UH-1 helicopters, was placed under the operational control of the 160th. The 1-245th AVN BN enlisted were sent to the Mississippi Army National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) at Gulfport, Mississippi, for two weeks of qualification training in the aircraft. The following two-week mission was to Yuma for night operation training. The AH/MH Little Birds were lifted by a single C-5 Galaxy, and two C-130 Hercules, along with all support kits for the battalion. Crews trained side by side with the 160th for all operational concepts. The 1-245 modified infantry night vision goggles and worked to develop the necessary skills for rapid deployment with Little Birds and C-130s. ==Variants==