The Rooivalk is an attack helicopter manufactured by the South African company Denel Aviation (previously designated AH-2 and CSH-2). The helicopter is designed to destroy enemy military equipment and manpower on the battlefield, strikes against various ground targets, direct fire support and escort of troops, as well as conduct aerial reconnaissance and counter-guerrilla actions. The helicopter has been actively developed since 1984, while the official adoption of the machine into service took place only in April 2011.
Attack helicopter Rooivalk (Ruivalk, as one of the types of kestrels is called in Afrikaans) was a rather expected model, but it still has not become and is unlikely to ever become a mass model of military helicopter technology. Currently, the only helicopter operator is the armed forces of the Republic of South Africa, which received 12 production models (at least one helicopter was decommissioned as a result of the accident). At the same time, attempts to promote the Ruivalk attack helicopter on the international arms market were unsuccessful. Therefore, today this helicopter can be safely called a real South African endemic.
The history and prerequisites for the creation of the Rooivalk helicopter
For quite a long time, the armed forces of South Africa were equipped mainly with foreign-made military equipment, although the production of military equipment in the country began in the 1960s since the creation of the Department for the Production of Arms under the South African government, which in 1968 turned into the Corporation for the Development and Production of Arms … At the same time, the country experienced serious problems with the development and production of sophisticated military equipment. This was due to the fact that the Republic of South Africa was never one of the advanced industrial states, despite the fact that it was the most developed country in Africa. At first, the South African industry mastered the production of individual parts and assemblies, and over time switched to licensed production of such complex models of military equipment as Mirage fighters and Alouette and Puma helicopters.
Perhaps for many years everything would have been limited only to the licensed assembly of military equipment, if not for the difficult military-political situation that was observed in southern Africa throughout the last quarter of the 20th century. We can say that at that time South Africa was a racist, anti-communist state, inside the country there was a constant struggle of the indigenous population for their rights with varying degrees of intensity, while often peaceful demonstrations turned into clashes with the police and troops. We can say that a real civil war was going on in South Africa and controlled by Namibia. When pro-communist governments came to power in neighboring countries - Mozambique and Angola, which gained independence from Portugal in 1974, the South African authorities did not like it. Already in 1975, South African troops invaded Angola. For a decade and a half, the south of the black continent plunged into the chaos of interstate and civil conflicts. At the same time, the reaction of the international community was immediate. Various restrictions were imposed on South Africa as the instigator of the war. So in 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution No. 418, which imposed an embargo on arms supplies to the Republic of South Africa.
In these realities, the South African authorities have chosen the only possible path - the development of their own military-industrial complex. One of the products of this program was the Kestrel attack helicopter, the decision on the development of which was made already in the early 1980s. The South African military put forward the following requirements for the new vehicle: fight against enemy armored vehicles and artillery, fire support for ground forces and escort of transport helicopters in the face of opposition from enemy air defenses. In addition, it was possible to conduct aerial combat with enemy helicopters - the Mi-25 (an export version of the famous Soviet "Crocodile" Mi-24). It is worth noting that Angola received support from Cuba in the form of volunteers and from the USSR, which sent weapons, including modern air defense systems and helicopters, and military instructors. In fact, the requirements of the South African military were not much different from the requirements that at one time were presented to the famous American attack helicopter AH-64 "Apache".
Throughout the 1980s, the concept and technical solutions that could be used on a new combat helicopter were being worked out in South Africa. The first prototype technology demonstrator helicopter, the XDM (Experimental Demonstration Model), took to the skies on February 11, 1990. This aircraft has survived and is now in the collection of the South African Air Force Museum located at Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria. On May 22, 1992, the second experimental ADM (Advanced Demonstration Model) helicopter took off into the sky, its main difference was the presence of a new set of instruments in the cockpits, the principle of the "glass cockpit" was implemented. And finally, on November 18, 1996, the third prototype of the future EDM (Engeneering Development Model) attack helicopter took off. The configuration has undergone some changes, and various equipment on board has been optimally placed, while the designers have managed to reduce the weight of the empty helicopter by 800 kg. The debut of the helicopter took place three years before the appearance of the EDM version; the machine was presented to the general public in 1993 at the International Aviation Show in Dubai. And the first truly production copy of the helicopter, designated Rooivalk, took to the skies in November 1998. The helicopter was officially adopted only in April 2011.
The long process of creating a helicopter and its fine-tuning had a lot of reasons. The most obvious reasons for the slow work include the lack of the necessary experience and knowledge in the field of creating such a complex military equipment. The second reason was the chronic underfunding of the work. In 1988, border conflicts ended and South Africa's defense budget was severely cut. And the fall of the apartheid regime, which lasted until the 1990s, had the most positive effect on the socio-economic situation of the country, but also did not contribute to an increase in spending on various military projects.
The design and concept of the combat use of the Rooivalk helicopter
The Rooivalk attack helicopter is built according to the classic single-rotor design for most combat rotorcraft with a four-bladed main rotor, a five-bladed tail rotor and a swept wing of a small aspect ratio. The cockpit with a tandem arrangement of pilots (in front of the operator's cabin, behind - the pilot). At the first glance at the helicopter, attention is drawn to the large air intake filters of the engines, they protect the power plant from the ingress of mineral sand, which is abundant in the soil in southern Africa.
The fuselage of the Rooivalk helicopter has a relatively small cross-section, it is made using metal alloys and local use of composite materials (booking with acryloplast on important structural elements and ceramic armor of the helicopter crew seats). The combat vehicle received an arrow-shaped vertical tail assembly, a five-blade tail rotor is attached on the right side, and on the left there is an uncontrollable stabilizer with a fixed slat. An additional keel is located directly under the tail boom of the helicopter, which contains a non-retractable tail support. The helicopter chassis is tricycle.
Each pilot's cockpit received a complete set of flight and navigation equipment. The helicopter has an inertial navigation system as well as a GPS satellite navigation system. The instrumentation is implemented according to the "glass cockpit" principle, all the necessary tactical and flight and navigation information is displayed on multifunctional liquid crystal displays. In addition, the pilots have night vision devices and a helmet-mounted sight and an indicator against the background of the windshield.
The power plant of the attack helicopter is represented by two advanced South African engineers Turbomeca Makila turboshaft engines - modification 1K2, developing a maximum power of 1845 hp each. Protected fuel tanks were located in the middle part of the helicopter fuselage. It is possible to use suspended fuel tanks - up to two PTBs with a capacity of 750 liters each. The helicopter designers managed to significantly reduce the level of vibrations, thanks to the inclusion in the project of a special vibration isolation system for the transmission and the rotor from the fuselage. According to test pilot Trevor Ralston, who flew the Kestrel, the vibration level in the cockpit of the attack helicopter was the same as in the cockpit of a conventional aircraft.
The creators of the helicopter paid great attention to the ability to survive on the battlefield, especially in the face of opposition from enemy air defense systems. We can say that in terms of tactics, the helicopter is much closer to the Soviet / Russian Mi-24 than to the American Apaches and Cobras. The philosophy of using the Kestrel allows for bombing and assault strikes directly on the front edge of the enemy defense, while the helicopter is in the zone of influence of all types of not only anti-aircraft missiles, but also small arms. At the same time, American combat helicopters are rather highly specialized anti-tank vehicles that are not capable of being exposed to fire from the ground. The main tactic of using them is launching an ATGM at the maximum possible range, preferably while being above the territory occupied by its troops. Assault actions "Apache" and "Cobra" could be carried out only in the absence of serious fire resistance from the ground.
The designers who created Ruywalk worked on the survivability of the helicopter by reducing the visibility in the visual, thermal, radar and acoustic ranges. Visibility is achieved by traditional methods - camouflage, flat-panel cockpit glazing, which reduces glare, and tactics of application from extremely low altitudes. Reducing the effective dispersion surface of an attack helicopter is provided by a small cross-sectional area of the fuselage, flat-panel gilded glazing, and the use of a low aspect ratio swept wing instead of a straight wing. The tactics of using the helicopter at ultra-low altitude also make it difficult to detect enemy radar. To reduce the visibility of the combat vehicle in the thermal range, a system was used for mixing the hot exhaust gases of the power plant with the ambient air in a one-to-one ratio. This method makes it possible to reduce the infrared radiation of the helicopter engines by 96 percent at once.
To protect the crew members and critical components of the attack helicopter, the designers of Denel Aerospace Systems have provided for the installation of ceramic and acrylic armor. Experts note that the total reservation area of the Rooivalk attack helicopters is less than that of Russian-made helicopters, but more than that of the Apache. All vital systems of the attack helicopter were duplicated. The principle of protection of more important components, structural elements and units of less important ones is widely used. A plus for the survivability of the helicopter is the fact that the controls are at the disposal of each of the crew members. The helicopter can be controlled not only by the pilot, but, if necessary, by the weapon operator.
An important part of the helicopter was the all-day and all-weather sighting and sighting system TDATS (thermal imager, laser rangefinder-target designator, low-level television camera and tracking and guidance system of the UR) mounted on a gyro-stabilized nose turret, which was included in the avionics. The onboard avionics also included a sophisticated navigation system and an integrated control and display system, which provided the Kestrel's crew members with important information about the combat load and made it possible to select options and missile launch modes. Separately, the fact that the TDATS system provided storage of images of the terrain in the memory of the onboard computer of the helicopter, this information could be used by the crew to analyze the tactical situation and search for targets. At the same time, information about target designation could be transmitted via a closed digital communication line to other Rooivalk attack helicopters or to ground command posts in real time.
The Rooivalk attack helicopter was armed with a 20 mm F2 automatic cannon (700 rounds of ammunition), working in conjunction with the TDATS system, as well as guided and unguided missiles that could be positioned on six underwing pylons. It was envisaged to install 8 or 16 long-range ATGMs Mokopa ZT-6 (up to 10 km) with radar or laser guidance to the target, or blocks with 70-mm unguided aircraft missiles (38 or 76 missiles) on four underwing pylons, and on two end launchers devices - two guided air-to-air missiles of the Mistral type.
Ruywalk helicopters have been used by the South African Air Force since May 1999. All production vehicles were sent to the 16th Squadron, located at Bloomspruit AFB near Bloemfontein Airport. A contract was signed with the developer for the supply of 12 Rooivalk Mk 1 attack helicopters, which was completed in full. At the same time, on August 3, 2005, one of the built serial helicopters was lost as a result of an accident, the machine was recognized as not subject to restoration and was written off. Thus, 11 helicopters remain in service. Attempts by Denel Aerospace Systems specialists to obtain funding for the creation and production of an upgraded version of the Rooivalk Mk 2 helicopter ended in nothing, finding no response either in South Africa or in other states.
At the same time, one should not forget that this example is not the only one when a country, which had never before done anything like that, began the process of developing a combat helicopter on its own. At various times, they tried to develop their own attack helicopters in India, Chile, Romania and Poland, but only in South Africa did the project reach the stage of mass production of a fairly modern combat vehicle (albeit in a very small series).
Flight performance of Rooivalk:
Overall dimensions: length - 18, 73 m, height - 5, 19 m, main rotor diameter - 15, 58 m, tail rotor diameter - 6, 35 m.
Empty weight - 5730 kg.
Normal takeoff weight - 7500 kg.
Maximum takeoff weight - 8750 kg.
The power plant consists of two turboshaft engines Turbomeca Makila 1K2 with a capacity of 2x1845 hp.
The maximum permissible speed is 309 km / h.
Cruising speed - 278 km / h.
The volume of fuel tanks is 1854 liters (it is possible to install two PTBs, 750 liters each).
The practical flight range is 704 km (at sea level), 940 km (at an altitude of 1525 m).
Ferry range - up to 1335 km (with PTB).
Service ceiling - 6100 m.
The rate of climb is 13.3 m / s.
Crew - 2 people (pilot and weapons operator).
Armament: 20-mm F2 automatic cannon (700 rounds), six suspension points, the ability to accommodate 8 or 16 Mokopa ZT-6 ATGMs, 4 Mistral air-to-air missiles, and 38 or 76 FFAR unguided missiles.
