LAMPS and the SH-60

I was just over at EBM's site reading reading about the LAMPS system and other interesting ASW doo-dads. When she was discussing the helos, it occured to me that I have few pictures of such a bird...modern as of this summer. Here is an SH-60 for your viewing pleasure, then please hop, skip, or jump over to her site and see what this damned lumpy contraption is supposed to do. Oh, and in this picture, that window that juts out a bit on the left side is usually taken up by either the sonobuoy system or some sort of MAD gear. The pilot told me, but six months on, I can't recall.

Note the bucket under the bird to catch hydraulic fluid...obviously they are not very hygeinic birds.

I forgot to get a shot of it's nose gear, which included, among other things, a FLIR.

Oh, and I had to include this Huey. I am pretty sure its an ANG bird. They had six of them flying over Yakima last summer...it brought visions of Full Metal Jacket to mind...it sounded pretty neat as they loitered overhead awaiting their ingress to the Firing Center.

.

In 2007, they also had some Kiowas with the whole ball surveilance thing on the top of the rotors doing exercises...it was pretty interesting.