In Russia, specifically for the Airborne Forces, they are going to create an "Airborne Helicopter Combat Vehicle", the first prototypes of the new helicopter should enter the troops in 2026. Sergei Romanenko, who is the executive director of the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, told the journalists about this.
As reported by RIA Novosti with reference to Sergei Romanenko, at present, within the framework of the working group together with the Airborne Forces, technical requirements have been formed for the "Airborne Helicopter Combat Vehicle" - this is a combat vehicle designed to transport 8 paratroopers, almost a BMD, only in the air and with all the capabilities of vertical take-off and landing, including when operating in high altitude conditions. Romanenko made the corresponding statement within the framework of the round table during the Army-2018 forum. He also said that according to the plan, development work on the new helicopter will begin in 2019, and the army will receive the first prototypes in 2026.
Until that time, Russian paratroopers will be content with existing combat vehicles and modernized helicopters. Thus, according to Sergei Romanenko, Mil Design Bureau is actively developing new modifications of the legendary Mi-8 helicopter in the interests of the Russian Airborne Forces. In particular, the Mi-8AMTSh-VN helicopter is being created specifically for the Airborne Forces, the serial production of which is planned to be launched already in 2020. The prototype of the new helicopter was shown at the closed exposition of the Army-2018 forum.
Mi-8AMTSh at MAKS-2017
Romanenko noted that PJSC Russian Helicopters is working on the creation of a new landing helicopter based on the Mi-8AMTSh - Mi-8AMTSh-VN on an initiative basis. It is planned to create two helicopters on the basis of the well-known machine, which has proven itself very well during the hostilities in Syria. The first modification will be designed to increase the troop transport component of the Russian Airborne Forces. The second Mi-8AMTSh-VN helicopter will be designed to provide fire support for paratroopers on the battlefield; this vehicle will receive more powerful weapons. According to Sergei Romanenko, the serial production of the light modification of the helicopter is planned to begin in 2020 at the Ulan-Udi Helicopter Plant, and the heavy version in the first half of 2021.
Appeal to the Soviet legacy
It should be noted that the idea of creating "flying armored vehicles" is not new and has a right to exist. This concept was not only seriously considered in the USSR, but was also implemented in metal. The famous "Crocodile" - the Mi-24 helicopter was the embodiment of the idea of creating a flying infantry fighting vehicle. Based on its concept, this helicopter was a transport and combat helicopter, since it could easily take on board up to eight paratroopers and carried on board powerful strike weapons intended for their fire support on the battlefield. The transport cabin, designed to carry 8 paratroopers, was retained by its successor - a deeply modernized version of the Mi-24V, the Mi-35M helicopter. All serial Mi-24/35 helicopters were used in practice to solve various tasks of a combined arms nature - landing of troops, fire support of the landing, destruction of armored vehicles and enemy manpower and its firing points, transportation of goods, evacuation of the wounded (you can take two seriously wounded on a stretcher on board, two lightly wounded and two accompanying) in more than 30 wars and local conflicts around the world. At the same time, helicopters were most often used as attack helicopters to defeat various ground targets from the air.
In the United States, there were similar Soviet views on helicopter technology, which became widespread during the Vietnam War, where helicopters played a very important role. As part of the implementation of these views in practice, a multipurpose UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter was created, which could carry an advanced strike weapons complex, and also take on board up to 11 paratroopers or 6 wounded on a stretcher. Unlike the Mi-24, the American helicopter had no armor and could not be used as an attack aircraft.
American multipurpose helicopters UH-60 Blackhawk
At the same time, in the Soviet Union, by the 1980s, a double scheme of using paratroopers had developed. The "strategic" landing was planned to be dropped by parachute along with military equipment from transport aircraft; it belonged to the Airborne Forces of the central subordination of the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense of the country. At the same time, airborne assault units were created, which were directly subordinate to the military districts. These units were intended for tactical helicopter landings, which were dropped relatively close to the contact line of troops, the main purpose of such landings was to disorganize the enemy's close rear. In the 1980s, a new tactic of "operational maneuver groups" (separate army corps) was also built specifically for them. During offensive operations with their participation, it was planned to combine the actions of mechanized brigades with the use of airborne assault regiments.
Around the same years, the Soviet Union decided to create a real flying infantry fighting vehicle or BMD specifically for the needs of airborne assault units. The new helicopter was supposed to simultaneously become both a protected vehicle and a means of fire support for paratroopers.
Unrealized project - Mi-42
In the early 1980s, after the creation of the Army Aviation structures as part of the USSR Ground Forces, its command initiated work to develop its own requirements for a new generation of army helicopters. It was planned that the basis of army aviation would be helicopter infantry fighting vehicles of the VBMP, which would increase the maneuverability of not only airborne assault, but also motorized rifle and reconnaissance units and subunits of the ground forces. The main tasks of the VBMP included the implementation of the urgent transfer of troops, tactical landings, air raids with the destruction of enemy manpower and equipment with airborne weapons, as well as air support for the combat operations of the landing force on the ground when capturing and holding objects and defense lines in the rear of the enemy.
In addition, the VBMP had to solve auxiliary tasks: carry out the transportation of goods and weapons, evacuate the wounded, provide reconnaissance, communications and search and rescue operations. At the same time, such helicopters were to be used in conditions adequate to the actions of the Ground Forces, they were required to be all-weather, to be used day and night, day and night, and to be able to operate on any terrain. Also, requirements were imposed on the VBMP for ease of piloting, unpretentiousness in maintenance, the possibility of interfacing with the systems of material and technical supply and weapons of the Ground Forces.
The Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant received the assignment of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the development of VBMP in March 1985. The Mi-40 helicopter project, ready by that time, did not meet the high requirements on the part of the customer, therefore it was rejected. At the same time, the engineers of the factory design bureau, headed by the chief designer A. N. Ivanov began work on the design of the Mi-42 helicopter, which was a VBMP of a fundamentally new scheme.
Landing from the Mi-35M
The Soviet designers were going to compensate for the reactive moment of the main rotor and carry out the directional control of the helicopter not with the usual tail rotor, but with a new system of the NOTAR type, which in those years became widespread on the light vehicles of the American company Hughes. The NOTAR system was a gas-air channel running inside the tail boom, into which compressed air was supplied with the help of fans, coming out under high pressure from a number of slots and nozzles with deflectors. This air, combined with the inductive flow under the rotor, created a lateral aerodynamic force on the beam, which parried the propeller's reactive moment. Nozzles with deflectors located at the end of the beam were intended for directional control of the machine. The absence of a tail rotor in the design was supposed to increase the safety of the paratroopers near the rotorcraft, as well as increase the combat survivability of the helicopter. In addition, due to the presence of jet exhaust from the nozzles, an additional propulsive force was formed, which was necessary to achieve the flight speed specified in the customer's requirements - it was quite high - 380-400 km / h.
In addition to the fundamentally new NOTAR system, at the request of the customer, other innovations were introduced into the design of the Mi-42 helicopter. The military demanded from the Mil OKB designers not only to ensure the transportation of soldiers' squads to the VBMP, but also to place on board a heavy all-weather sighting and flight navigation system, powerful weapons and enhanced booking, the armament of the new machine would practically not differ from the "flying" Mi-28 tank … In fact, the military dreamed of a flying infantry fighting vehicle. At the same time, their appetites grew all the time: from the requirement to increase the available ammunition to the use of diesel fuel as fuel and to simplify piloting so that an ordinary sergeant-two-year-old could easily cope with the helicopter.
All these requirements significantly complicated the design of the new helicopter. The designers did not manage to provide the specified takeoff weight of the Mi-42. Instead of the forced TVZ-117 engine, it was necessary to consider other, sometimes completely unusual for them, options for power plants, both existing and promising. It is no coincidence that specialists from CIAM, TsAGI, NIIAS and other Soviet institutes of the aviation industry and the customer were actively involved in research in the development of VBMP. The preliminary design and the full-scale model of the Mi-42 helicopter were repeatedly redesigned during the design process. On such a heavy helicopter, the performance and effectiveness of the NOTAR system raised doubts among the designers. For this reason, it was eventually decided to abandon it in favor of the tail rotor-fenestron (fenestron is a closed tail rotor, “a propeller in a ring) and propulsion fans located on the sides of the helicopter. Ultimately, the experts came to the conclusion that it is simply not possible to create a new helicopter in strict accordance with the customer's specifications, given the technical level of development of instrument making and technologies available in the USSR. By the end of the 1980s, work on the creation of the Mi-42 helicopter was stopped, and the subsequent collapse of the USSR only finally put an end to this project.
Alleged appearance of the Mi-42 helicopter
However, the idea of creating a full-fledged flying airborne combat vehicle has not died over all these years, regularly emerging in the form of publications affecting the promising appearance of airborne assault units. And the increasing requirements for the mobility of troops and the high pace of all military operations conducted today continue to return the Ministry of Defense to the idea of creating a full-fledged helicopter airborne combat vehicle. A new round of this story seems to have been launched. And we have every chance by 2026 to see a new airborne assault helicopter that will be able to bring the VBMP concept back to life from the 1980s.
