Bell OH-58 Kiowa

The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine, single-rotor military helicopters that the United States Army used for observation, utility and direct fire support. It grew out of Bell's D-250 design for the Light Observation Helicopter competition, which Hughes won in 1965 with the OH-6 Cayuse before the competition reopened and a variant of Bell's civil Model 206A was selected. The first model, the OH-58A, entered service in May 1969, and successive versions culminated in the armed OH-58D Kiowa Warrior with a four-blade rotor, which saw combat in the Gulf War, Panama and Afghanistan. Bell built 2,325 OH-58 helicopters, and the Army retired its last OH-58C in September 2020.