After a stellar operational career and a number of programs designed to enhance the helicopter, the US Army decided to call time on its versatile yet vulnerable OH-58D Kiowa Warriors. With a handful of surplus airframes being offered internationally, the scout is bowing out.
HAVING NOTCHED UP nearly half a century in US military service, the OH-58 Kiowa is on its farewell lap. On April 15, 2016, 32 OH-58Ds operated by the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment (Task Force Sabre) carried out a mass formation flight over Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in advance of the unit’s final deployment with the scout attack helicopter. The squadron, which is a component of the 82nd Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade, deployed to South Korea on June 3 last year. At the conclusion of the nine-month deployment, the final 30 OH-58Ds will be retired — ending the Kiowa Warrior’s US Army career.
Rather than loading its helicopters onto transports or ships when it returns to Fort Bragg, the squadron’s OH-58s will be left behind and moved to storage facilities or passed on to new operators.
In addition to being the last operational US Army unit to fly the Kiowa Warrior, the 1-17th’s November 2014 departure from Afghani…
