In May 1969, the first OH-58A Kiowa was officially received at a ceremony held at Bell Helicopter's Fort Worth plant, officiated by Major General
John Norton, commanding general of the Army Aviation Materiel Command (AMCOM). Two months later, on 17 August 1969, production OH-58A helicopters arrived in
South Vietnam for the first time; their deployment was accompanied by a New Equipment Training Team (NETT) comprising personnel from both the US Army and Bell Helicopters. Although the Kiowa production contract had replaced the LOH contract with Hughes, the OH-58A did not automatically replace the OH-6A in operations; subsequently, the Kiowa and the Cayuse would continue operating in the same theater until the end of the conflict.
Vietnam War On 27 March 1970, an OH-58A Kiowa (s/n 68-16785) was shot down over South Vietnam, one of the first OH-58A losses of the war. The pilot,
Warrant Officer Ralph Quick Jr., was flying
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Benoski Jr. as an artillery spotter. After completing a battle damage assessment for a previous fire mission, the aircraft was damaged by .51 inch (13 mm) machine gun fire and crashed, killing both crew members. Approximately 45 OH-58A helicopters were destroyed during the
Vietnam War due to combat losses and accidents. One of the last combat losses in the theatre was of an OH-58A (s/n 68-16888) from
A Troop, 3-17th Cavalry, flown by
First Lieutenant Thomas Knuckey. On 27 May 1971, Lieutenant Knuckey was also flying a battle damage assessment mission when his aircraft came under machine gun fire and exploded. Knuckey and his observer,
Sergeant Philip Taylor, both died in the explosion.
Operation Prime Chance During early 1988, it was decided that armed OH-58D (AHIP) helicopters from the 118th Aviation Task Force would be phased in to replace the SEABAT (
AH-6/MH-6) teams of
Task Force 160th to carry out
Operation Prime Chance, the escort of oil tankers during the
Iran–Iraq War. On 24 February 1988, two AHIP helicopters reported to the Mobile Sea Base Wimbrown VII, and the helicopter team ("SEABAT" team after their callsign) stationed on the barge returned to the United States. For the next few months, the AHIP helicopters on the Wimbrown VII shared patrol duties with the SEABAT team on the Hercules. Coordination proved difficult, despite frequent requests from TF-160, the SEABAT team on the Hercules was not replaced by an AHIP detachment until June 1988. The OH-58D helicopter crews involved in the operation received deck landing and underwater survival training from the Navy. In November 1988, the number of OH-58D helicopters that supported Task Force 118 was reduced. However, the rotorcraft continued to operate from the Navy's Mobile Sea Base
Hercules, the frigate
Underwood, and the destroyer
Conolly. OH-58D operations primarily entailed reconnaissance flights at night, and depending on maintenance requirements and ship scheduling, Army helicopters usually rotated from the mobile sea base and other combatant ships to a land base every seven to fourteen days. On 18 September 1989, an OH-58D crashed during night gunnery practice and sank, but with no loss of personnel. When the Mobile Sea Base Hercules was deactivated in September 1989, all but five OH-58D helicopters redeployed to the continental United States.
Gulf War During
Operation Desert Shield (the build-up to
Operation Desert Storm) U.S. Army OH-58Ds would exercise alongside USMC AH-1Ws and assist with targeting and laser spotting. However while this tactic worked and was effective, there is little evidence that this tactic was used, likely to a lack of OH-58Ds. During Operation Desert Storm, 130 deployed OH-58D helicopters worked alongside the other Army attack helicopters, 145
AH-1 Cobras and 277
AH-64 Apaches, Army attack helicopters also worked
jointly with close air support and support aircraft such as the USAF
A-10As,
F-16A/Cs,
EF-111As,
EC-130H Compass Call,
F-4G Phantom II "
Wild Weasel", and
E-8 Joint STARS. Eventually, the program was expanded to cover 32 states and consisting of 116 aircraft, including dedicated training aircraft at the Western Army Aviation Training Site (WAATS) in
Marana, Arizona. The RAID program's mission has now been expanded to include the war against terrorism and supporting
U.S. Border Patrol activities in support of homeland defense. The National Guard RAID units' Area of Operation (AO) is the only one in the
Department of Defense that is wholly contained within the borders of the
United States. On 17 December 1994, Army
Chief Warrant Officers (CWO) David Hilemon and Bobby Hall left Camp Page,
South Korea on a routine training mission along the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Their flight was intended to be to a point known as Checkpoint 84, south of the DMZ "no-fly zone", but the OH-58C Kiowa strayed nearly into the Kangwon Province, inside
North Korean airspace, due to errors in navigating the snow-covered, rugged terrain. The helicopter was shot down by North Korean troops and CWO Hilemon was killed. CWO Hall was held captive and the North Korean government insisted that the crew had been spying. Five days of negotiations resulted in the North Koreans turning over Hilemon's body to U.S. authorities. The negotiations failed to secure Hall's immediate release. After 13 days in captivity, Hall was freed on 30 December, uninjured.
Afghanistan and Iraq , 2011 , 2013 The U.S. Army employed the OH-58D during
Operation Iraqi Freedom in
Iraq and
Operation Enduring Freedom in
Afghanistan. Between a combination of combat and accidents, over 35 airframes have been lost, resulting in the deaths of 35 pilots. Their presence was also anecdotally credited with saving lives, having been used to rescue wounded despite their small size. In Iraq, OH-58Ds reportedly flew 72 hours per month, while in Afghanistan, the type flew 80 hours per month. During April 2013, Bell stated that the OH-58 collectively accumulated 820,000 combat hours, and had achieved a 90% mission capable rate.
Retirement The U.S. Army's first attempt to replace the OH-58 was the
RAH-66 Comanche of the
Light Helicopter Experimental program, which was canceled in 2004. Airframe age and losses led to the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter program and the
Bell ARH-70, which was canceled in 2008 due to cost overruns. The third replacement effort was the
Armed Aerial Scout program. Due to uncertainty in the AAS program and fiscal restraints, the OH-58F's planned retirement was extended from 2025 to 2036. The Kiowa's scout role was supplemented by tactical
unmanned aerial vehicles, the two platforms often acting in conjunction to provide reconnaissance to expose crews to less risk. The OH-58F had the ability to control UAVs directly to safely perform scout missions. In December 2013, the U.S. Army had 338 Kiowas in its active-duty force and 30 in the
Army National Guard. The Army considered retiring the Kiowa as part of a wider restructuring to cut costs and reduce the variety of helicopters operated. The
Analysis of Alternatives for the AAS program found that operating the Kiowa alongside
RQ-7 Shadow UAVs was the most affordable and capable solution, while the
AH-64E Apache Guardian was the most capable immediate solution. One proposal was to transfer all Army National Guard and
Army Reserve AH-64s to the active Army for use as scouts to divest the OH-58. The Apache costs 50 percent more than the Kiowa to operate and maintain; studies note that had it been used in place of the Kiowa in Iraq and Afghanistan, total operating costs would have risen by $4 billion, but also saved $1 billion per year in operating and sustainment costs.
UH-60 Black Hawks would transfer from the active Army to reserve and Guard units. The aim was to retire older helicopters and retain those with the best capabilities to save money. Retiring the Kiowa would fund Apache upgrades. The Army placed 26 out of 335 OH-58Ds in non-flyable storage during 2014. In anticipation of divestment, the Army looked to see if other military branches, government agencies, and foreign customers had interest in buying the type. The Kiowas were considered to be well priced for foreign countries with limited resources; Bell had not yet agreed to support them if sold overseas. Media expected OH-58s to go to foreign militaries rather than civil operators due to high operating cost. By 2015, the Army had divested 33 OH-58Ds. By January 2016, the Army had divested all but two OH-58D squadrons. In June 2016, members of 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment,
82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, arrived in South Korea as part of the Kiowa's last deployment in U.S. Army service; during the following year, the unit reequipped with AH-64s. In January 2017, the last Kiowa Warrior performed their last live fire maneuver before retirement. Ex-U.S. Army OH-58Ds were made available through Excess Defense Article and
foreign military sales (FMS) programs. In November 2014, Croatia sent a letter of intent for the acquisition of 16 OH-58Ds. In 2016, Croatia and Tunisia became the first nations to request the helicopters, ordering 16 and 24, respectively. Croatia received the first batch of 5 OH-58Ds at the
Zadar-Zemunik air base on 30 June 2016. In early 2018, Greece was granted 70 OH-58Ds via an FMS arrangement, the type has been initially stationed at Hellenic Army Aviation air base at
Stefanovikio. In March 2020, the U.S. Army selected the
Bell 360 Invictus and
Sikorsky Raider X as part of the
Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program to fill the capability gap left by the retirement of the OH-58. On 29 September 2020, the US Army retired its last OH-58Cs from active service at Fort Irwin. In February 2024, FARA was cancelled; by this point, there were three abandoned attempts to replace the OH-58 at a cost in excess of $9 billion. The armed scout role has been filled by the AH-64 and the unarmed
RQ-7 Shadow UAV; this combination reportedly accomplished 80% of the scouting mission, while also providing greater firepower, durability, and speed. ==Variants==