The Soviet Union was one of the founders and world leaders in the construction of helicopter technology. Soviet developers achieved no less success in the field of creating guided weapons, in particular, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM). The combination of these two directions predetermined the appearance of combat helicopters in the armed forces of the USSR.
Helicopters
The first Soviet helicopter equipped with an ATGM, in 1962, was the Mi-1MU, armed with four 3M11 Phalanx ATGMs. Due to the lack of interest in it from the Armed Forces of the USSR, it was not accepted into service, like its improved version with six missiles. The next generation helicopters, the Mi-2 and Mi-4, did not receive significant development as ATGM carriers.
The first truly combat helicopter of the USSR was the Mi-24 combat helicopter, created in 1972. First of all, it was optimized not for anti-tank use, but for fire support of ground forces, although it could carry up to four Phalanx ATGMs, and later on more advanced Shturm-V ATGMs. The design of the Mi-24 and its modifications was not optimized for conducting combat operations from the hover mode typical for NATO helicopters. In fact, the Mi-24 was used as an attack aircraft with a short takeoff and vertical landing, or as an aerial BMP. Due to the presence of a spacious amphibious compartment, the Mi-24 turned out to be significantly larger and heavier than the American AH-1, however, these helicopters were originally created to solve various problems.
In the latest modifications of the Mi-24VM (Mi-35M), the helicopter received shortened wings, increased power engines and 8-16 ATGM "Shturm-V" or "Attack-M", which allows it to relatively effectively solve the tasks of destroying armored vehicles.
The total superiority of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact Organization in armored vehicles in comparison with the United States and the NATO bloc did not make the task of creating an anti-tank helicopter a priority. In this regard, the appearance in the USSR of a helicopter, similar in capabilities to the newest American AH-64 Apache, was significantly delayed. This was primarily due to the collapse of the USSR, but a significant contribution was made by the confrontation between OKB "Kamov" and KB. Mile. During the long-term "competition" of the Ka-50 and Mi-28 helicopters, and then their successors Ka-52 and Mi-28N, the sides poured a lot of dirt on each other, which undoubtedly negatively affected the export potential of both machines, however, this topic has been reviewed many times in specialized publications and on thematic forums.
Initially, the Kamov Design Bureau with the Ka-50 helicopter was declared the winner of the competition for a new army helicopter. Earlier in the USSR there was an unspoken division of labor, in which the Kamov Design Bureau prioritized the development of helicopters for the USSR Navy, and the Design Bureau im. A mile for ground forces. With the advent of the Ka-50 helicopter, this tradition was broken.
The car turned out to be extremely interesting. First of all, attention was drawn to the single-seat layout of the helicopter with a high level of automation. For the first time in the world, a pilot's ejection seat was installed with the blades shot off before ejection. Installed closer to the center of mass of the 30th, the 2A42 cannon with selective ammunition and 460 rounds of ammunition made it possible to hit targets at a distance of up to four kilometers. As anti-tank weapons were to be used 12 supersonic ATGM "Whirlwind" with a guidance system along the "laser path" and an estimated firing range of 8-10 kilometers. The coaxial scheme made it possible to provide the helicopter with excellent maneuverability and a high rate of climb up to 28 m / s (for comparison, for the Mi-28 this figure is 13.6 m / s, for the AH-1 - 8, 22 m / s, for the AH-64 - 7, 2-12.7 m / s). Spectacular appearance and catchy name "Black Shark" quickly made the Ka-50 famous in Russia and abroad, where it was named "Werewolf".
Provided for the joint operation of combat helicopters Ka-50 with helicopters Ka-29VPNTSU, equipped with complexes of automation and communications to ensure navigation, target designation and closed radio communications with other branches of the military. Also, according to some reports, the option of joint operation of the Ka-50 with the two-seat "commander" modification of the Ka-52 and the Ka-31 early warning radar helicopters (AWACS) was considered, however, this may be someone's individual vision of the problem.
Lengthy debate on the final adoption of a combat helicopter in the Russian Federation led to the rejection of the Kamov Design Bureau from a single-seat modification - the Ka-50 and the promotion of its two-seat modification Ka-52, with the placement of pilots side by side (side-by-side), which did not quite typical for attack helicopters. Nevertheless, the main characteristics of the Ka-50 were retained, in addition, a millimeter-wave radar station (radar) was placed under the nose radio-transparent fairing, designed for target detection and flight in the terrain bend mode.
Ultimately, both vehicles were adopted, the Ka-52 and the Mi-28N, which received both positive and negative reviews in the troops. In general, winning in terms of armor and maneuverability in comparison with the AH-64 Apache, both vehicles are inferior to him in terms of avionics and weapons. It is expected that avionics comparable to those installed on AH-64D / E helicopters appeared on the upgraded Mi-28NM helicopter. Also, by 2021-2022, it is planned to upgrade the Ka-52 helicopter to the Ka-52M level with improved surveillance and sighting systems and extended-range missiles.
Nevertheless, the lag in ATGMs still remains. If American helicopters can use ATGMs in the "fire and forget" mode, then Russian helicopters using ATGMs "Attack" or "Whirlwind" require carrier tracking of the target throughout the missile's flight. This was a consequence of the lag of the domestic element base and, accordingly, the lack of compact multi-range homing heads.
ATGM and multifunctional air-to-ground missiles
ATGMs of the first generation, in which it was necessary to aim the missile at the target manually, did not provide any acceptable probability of hitting the target. The first effective anti-tank system used from Mi-24 helicopters and Ka-29 helicopters of the Navy was the Shturm-V ATGM. The complex provided the defeat of armored targets at a range of up to five kilometers with a supersonic missile with radio command guidance. At the time of appearance, the characteristics of the ATGM "Shturm-V" allowed combat helicopters to effectively deal with armored targets. Later, on the basis of the Shturm-V ATGM, an improved ATGM ATGM was developed with a firing range of up to eight kilometers, which can be used from Mi-28 helicopters, and in the version with laser guidance from Ka-52 helicopters.
Developed for the Ka-50 supersonic ATGM "Whirlwind" with a guidance system along the "laser path" was supposed to have a range of up to eight kilometers, and in the "Whirlwind-M" version up to 10 kilometers. Large-scale production of the Vikhr ATGM has not been established, the Vikhr-M ATGM has been serially produced since 2013 for use as part of the Ka-52, but information on their actual use is extremely limited.
In general, the Vikhr-M ATGM has higher characteristics compared to the Attack ATGM, but at the same time, both complexes are outdated by modern standards and belong to the second generation. The speed of even supersonic ATGMs is in any case significantly inferior to the flight speed of modern anti-aircraft guided missiles (SAM). As a result, a helicopter attacking armored vehicles covered by air defense systems is likely to be destroyed even before the ATGM target is hit. Based on this, Russian combat helicopters need weapons capable of operating on the “fire and forget” principle, that is, a third-generation ATGM.
For a long time, the Internet has been discussing the development of the Hermes ATGM by the Tula Instrument Design Bureau (KBP JSC). Such a complex has indeed been under development for a long time, initially under the name "Klevok", then, being renamed into "Hermes". Complex "Hermes" is supposed to be placed on ground, surface and air carriers. According to various sources, the range of the aviation version of the Hermes missile complex should be about 25 km, the range of the ground version of the complex can be up to 100 km. There is an opinion that a firing range of 100 km can be achieved when launched from any type of carrier and is more dependent on the carrier's ability to provide target designation at the maximum range. The rocket speed is supersonic, the maximum speed is about 1000 m / s, the average is 500 m / s. The Hermes-A complex (aircraft version) was primarily intended to equip Ka-52 helicopters.
The missiles of the Hermes complex cannot be classified as an ATGM; rather, it is a multifunctional air-to-ground missile (in-z) or ground-to-ground (z-z). The missiles of the Hermes complex provide for the use of several guidance systems, in particular, with a high probability we can talk about the presence of an inertial guidance system, a radio command guidance system and a laser homing head (GOS), similar to those used in guided artillery shells (UAS) of the Krasnopol type … Other proposed seeker options include a passive thermal imaging homing head, an active radar homing head, or a combined thermal imaging + laser homing head. Presumably, the inertial guidance system can be supplemented with a correction according to the GLONASS satellite navigation system, which would be reasonable for hitting stationary remote targets.
Which of these GOS options for the Hermes complex have already been developed, which are in the works, and which will not be implemented at all, is not known for certain.
The image published in the previous article (on the right) shows a supposedly hypersonic anti-aircraft guided missile (SAM) of the Pantsir-SM complex. Given the range of up to 40 kilometers and the hypersonic flight speed, the question arises about the possibility of implementing this product in an anti-tank version. In this case, almost the entire second stage will be occupied by "scrap" - the core of an armor-piercing feathered sub-caliber projectile (BOPS) made of tungsten or depleted uranium alloys. Taking into account the inevitable increase in the size and mass of the second stage, the range should noticeably decrease compared to 40 kilometers for missiles, but even a range of 15-20 kilometers will allow combat helicopters equipped with such a hypersonic ATGM to successfully solve anti-tank missions in the face of opposition from enemy air defense systems. An additional advantage can be considered the complexity of hitting hypersonic targets by active protection complexes (KAZ) of modern armored vehicles. And the use of the BOPS core as a warhead will increase the resistance of the ATGM to secondary fragments formed when one of the ATGMs is hit by KAZ elements (with a pair launch). Reaching hypersonic flight speeds of the ATGM can partially compensate for the lag of the Russian Federation in the field of creating seeker heads.
In the summer of 2019, a video with a demonstration of the launch of a promising product 305 - a light guided multifunctional missile (LMUR) from a Mi-28NM helicopter - circulated around the network.
Product 305 is called the Russian answer to the American JAGM. Some materials suggest that product 305 is the Hermes missile complex, others say that this is a completely different product. Based on the analysis of the video image, one can rather lean towards the second option, since the product suspended under the Mi-28NM does not look like a Hermes missile in a container. The fact that the product 305 does not belong to the Hermes complex is also evidenced by the fact that it is being tested on the Mi-28NM. JSC KBP, the developer of the Hermes complex, traditionally has Kamov as a partner, so it is logical that new products would first of all be tested on the Ka-52.
Let's go back to item 305 (LMUR). Presumably, the product 305 conceptually originated from the X-25 and X-38 air-to-ground missiles, there are even opinions that the LMUR is based on the design of the R-73 short-range air-to-air missile. The LMUR rocket, made according to the "duck" scheme (with front control surfaces), is equipped with a highly sensitive multispectral optical-electronic seeker using semi-active laser, television and dual-band, medium-wave and long-wave (3-5 μm and 8-13 μm) infrared guidance channels … The LMUR missile should attack targets in the upper hemisphere with dive angles over 60-70 degrees, which will allow it to bypass many modern KAZ and hit armored targets in the most vulnerable upper projection. Questions remain about the speed and weight and size parameters of the 305 product and how much they can be placed on the underwing holders of the Mi-28NM and Ka-52 helicopters.
It makes no sense to compare the Russian LMUR with the American JAGM at the moment due to the lack of more or less reliable characteristics of the 305 product. The JAGM indicates the presence of a three-mode seeker with infrared, active radar and laser guidance channels. As part of the LMUR, the possibility of having an active radar seeker is not declared, which may be a significant disadvantage when it is used in poor weather conditions, but it is quite possible that the LMUR is ahead of the JAGM in terms of other characteristics - flight range and speed, warhead power. In any case, the appearance of LMUR in the ammunition of the Mi-28NM and Ka-52 combat helicopters can be considered an important milestone in the development of the Russian army aviation.
High-speed helicopters
Following the trend set by Western developers, Russian manufacturers are developing promising high-speed combat and transport helicopters.
The Kamov company primarily focuses on the creation of the Ka-92 high-speed transport helicopter with a traditional coaxial design and a pusher propeller.
The plans to create a promising combat helicopter of the Kamov company can be judged from the preliminary images.
In 2015, the Mi-X1 took off, a flight prototype based on the Mi-24 with improved aerodynamics and a new propeller. The maximum speed declared by the developer is 520 km / h with a flight range of 900 kilometers.
In 2018, information was announced that the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant was selected as the main developer of the high-speed combat helicopter. However, recalling the history of the confrontation between the Ka-50 and Mi-28 helicopters, we can say that this is not the final decision. In any case, the developments of Russian companies are at an early stage, as the projects develop, conceptual changes are possible, including based on the results of studying the foreign experience of operating such machines. It can be assumed that in the period at least until 2030, the domestic army aviation should rely only on new and modernized vehicles of the Ka-52 and Mi-28 families.
How critical is our lag behind the United States in creating high-speed helicopters? Even if the United States is able to adopt and release high-speed combat helicopters in a fairly large series in the near future, it will take a lot of time to develop tactics for their use and gain experience in accident-free operation. There is no doubt that, like tiltrotors, high-speed helicopters will reap their harvest in the form of irrecoverable losses of experimental and production vehicles. And in itself, the appearance of high-speed helicopters in value cannot be compared either with the transition from piston aircraft to jet aircraft, or with the creation of hypersonic weapons, they will not have a radical impact on the tactics of warfare.
Based on the foregoing, it can be assumed that at the current stage and in the near future, the main task of the Russian defense industry will be the refinement and debugging of effective air-defense missiles with multispectral seeker, as well as the creation of hypersonic ATGMs. In addition to development, an equally important task is to deploy large-scale production of new products and saturate the armed forces with them.
In terms of modernizing combat helicopters, the priority remains the task of increasing the efficiency of onboard electronic equipment and reconnaissance equipment. Increasing the security of combat helicopters will not be left unattended, in order to minimize the likelihood of their being hit by small arms and small-caliber artillery weapons. Another direction for improving combat helicopters will be the development of helicopter self-defense systems, primarily against attacks by portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS). However, it is quite possible that self-defense systems will also be effective against third-generation ATGMs, such as the American Javelin complex, equipped with a thermal imaging homing head, while second-generation ATGMs, guided by wire or along the "laser trail", will still be pose a serious threat to attack helicopters moving at low speed and at low altitude.
