Black Helicopters again...
Flywithastick...
All Army aircraft, be they Guard, Reserve or active duty, are painted dark green. The newer aircraft in particular look almost black. The older Black Hawks and Hueys had a greener paint job, but since about the late 1980s, all the newer aircraft have come out of the factory with a very dark green paint job. I flew Army Guard helos out of New Orleans Lakefront airport, and we got a couple calls each year from weirdos complaining about our "black, unmarked CIA helicopters".
As for the tanks and antennas, the older UH-60A Black Hawks weren't equipped to carry any of that. Since about the early 1990s, the Army has been trying to modernize the Guard/Reserve with the newer UH-60L, which comes standard with the ESSS system. Many A model Hawks have been modified to carry the ESSS system as well. The ESSS is essentially a removeable stub wing that can be used to carry up to four external fuel tanks. And in recent years, they've been upgrading the Hawk fleet with new radios and other gear. Some of those "antennas" you see are actually ASE (Aviation Survival Equipment); radar/IR jammers, chaff and flare dispensers and radar warning receivers.
The "black helicopter" conspiracy theory is just another example of people trying to make a conclusion about something they know little or nothing about. I have an in-law who cornered me once and started asking questions about those "FBI helicopters" that had the "radar cameras", and she said they were flying around looking for everyone's guns so when the UN shock troops come, they know who's house to search....kid you not...to say the least, my jaw dropped for a bit.
Then I explained to her the unmarked helicopters were ours, from the Guard facility about 30 miles east of her town out of Esler Field near Alexandria, LA. She replied, rather suprised, "well, they didn't have Army written on them anywhere"....sure they did, but it's hard to see a one-foot high "United States Army" in flat black on a very dark green tailboom from the ground....
As for night missions...about half of all Army helo missions are at night...there is a huge emphasis on NVG operations. They Army is the only branch of service I'm aware of that certs all of its pilots in NVG ops prior to graduating flying school. Since I flew medevac, NVG ops weren't quite as big a deal (although about a third of our flying time was at night), but the Black Hawk unit next door to us flew nearly every night.
I actually got to check out the WB-57....really interesting airplane. They parked right next to us at Kelly Field in San Antonio. They had on the whole pressure suit thing. The back-seater started talking to us first because he had an application in to fly for the USAF. They flew home to Houston in a regular flight suit...apparently, if they stay below FL500, they don't have to put on the pressure suit.
I do have to admit, it's a very strange sight to see taxi up to you on the ramp....the wings droop, and those engines are huge in comparison with the rest of the airplane. All that thrust and they said they could only get to about 70,000 MSL. A new set of engines is supposed to boost that to about 75-80k.