Air Force unveils next-gen 'Whiskey' helicopters to replace Pave Hawks: 'A beacon of hope'

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/07/air-force-unveils-next-gen-helicopters-replace-pave-hawks/ [login to see] /
In summer 2005, HH-60G Pave Hawks with the Air Force Reserve's 920th Rescue Wing flew a daring mission along Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains to save Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell after his team was killed in a Taliban ambush.

Those aging combat rescue helicopters from Operation Red Wings — later memorialized in the book and movie "Lone Survivor" — debuted back in 1982.

Now, the replacement of the Pave Hawk has arrived.

Officials with Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, showcased the next-generation HH-60W "Whiskey" helicopter during a ceremony Monday at the Sikorsky Development Flight Center in Jupiter, Florida.

"You think about the mission that this has to go out there and perform: the altitude, the attacks that it takes from the ground, the folks that it has to take to put on board and carry out of those places — out of those hellholes, literally," U.S. Rep. Brian Mast told the crowd.