Apparently the Pakistani government were so upset with the
U.S over their Osama Bin Laden raid that before handing back the broken tail section of the 'Airwolf'
stealth helicopter they let
Chinese military engineers get a good look at it.
China and
Pakistan have
military ties linking the two countries back for decades, and many
U.S personal have taken it as a given that
Pakistan let
China have a close look at the
stealth copter before allowing the United States government to recover it.
According to a report over at
Wired, the
U.S are not to worried with the
Chinese getting to see the broken
stealth prop as helicopter
stealth technology has been highly documented since the 70's, however they are concerned that the
Chinese engineers were able to take
samples of the 'Airwolf's'
stealth skin back to
Beijing.
Although the principles behind stealth copters are widely known, the paint and radar absorbing skins are highly advanced technological secrets. If China managed to get a sample and are able to reverse engineer it, Beijing's goal of an invisible to radar stealth fleet would be that much closer!