Silent helicopters used in attack

As reported by Christopher Drew, quoting aviation analysts in the New York Times, the US team who "killed Osama bin Laden sneaked up on his compound in radar-evading helicopters that had never been discussed publicly by the United States government..." The report further mentioned that the 'commandos blew up one of the helicopters after it was damaged in a hard landing, but news photographs of the surviving tail section reveal modifications to muffle noise and reduce the chances of detection by radar."

"Analysts said the raid was a rare case in which stealth aircraft, devised for conventional warfare during the cold war, became critical to fighting terrorism.

"Military and intelligence agencies have refused to comment about the use of stealth aircraft in this raid. But since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the special forces have spared no expense in developing technology to hunt terrorists, and aviation experts said the debris from the damaged helicopter provided further evidence of that."