THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS, LOOKING FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
The Sh-3 is one of the “uglier” helicopters to be used by the US Navy; It looks as if it would be a slow and easy target. However, you would be mistaken; it has a top speed of over 200 mph, but it normally operates at 166mph (267 KPH). This made it at the time, the fastest helicopter to ever enter service with the US Navy. Not only is it fast, but it also has an impressive range of 621 miles (1000 kilometers). All this was possible with the help of 2 General Electric T58-GE-8B turboshaft engines.
After seeing this aircraft, you may be asking where it is weaponry. Well, the truth is that it doesn’t have much in the lines of weaponry practical to the game currently, as it was mainly tasked with anti-submarine warfare duty. However, it is capable of carrying torpedoes and sonobuoys. While the buoys would serve little to no use in-game currently, it would be possible for the torpedoes to act as bombs in a limited capacity.
(as a side note, the SH-3 can carry a B-57 nuclear bomb that could have its fuze set to act as a depth charge)
In addition to this, sh-3 was capable of carrying a gun in the form of a door-mounted gun, while I am not sure exactly what gun was used, as little to no images or information about that is available, it can be assumed that it was a crew operated machine gun/minigun the only solid source I have of this is an image shown below of the gun mount without the weapon installed:
While the weaponry on the SH-3 is very limited, its electronics were quite advanced; it had onboard chaff/flare dispensers, dipping sonar (AQS-13A/B/E), magnetic anomaly detectors, GPS (first generation), and night vision capabilities.
The SH-3 has seen a lot of action in just its service time for the US Navy; among some of those was its use in recovering astronauts from MUCURY ATLAS 7, Apollo 8, Apollo 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. It has also been featured in several movies, one of the most notable was “The Final Countdown (1960)” where it was featured in several important scenes.
The SH-3 was manufactured from 1959-1970s (exact year unknown)
The SH-3 saw service with the US Navy in a combat role from 1961-2008
(note: the sh-3 is technically still is service with the US government as “Marine One” and “Marine Two”)
- Yes
- No