Three-barreled 20-mm cannon M197 from General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in the ventral nacelle of the Bell AH-1 W SuperCobra helicopter
All helicopters are load-sensitive, and therefore the emphasis in the choice of weapons for them is invariably placed on the weight of the helicopter. However, while multipurpose helicopters need weapons for all-round self-defense, attack helicopters need forward-firing weapons that can destroy fortified targets from a safe distance, as well as a cannon in a mobile installation for firing less complex targets
If we take the light part of the range of weapons, then machine guns are usually not used on attack helicopters, although the Bell AH-1G Cobra helicopter began life with an Emerson Electric TAT-102A front gondola with a six-barreled 7, 62-mm GAU-2B / A Minigun machine gun from General Electric. Similarly, the Mi-24 attack helicopter was originally equipped with a four-barreled 12.7 mm Yakushev-Borzov (YakB-12, 7) 9A624 machine gun in a remotely controlled installation.
Four-barreled 12.7 mm machine gun Yakushev-Borzov (YakB-12, 7)
Cannons almost universally replaced machine guns as gondola weapons. One of the few exceptions is the German Army's Eurocopter Tiger UHT, currently it can only carry automatic weapons in the form of fixed containers with weapons.
In December 2012, FN Herstal HMP400 containers were installed on Tiger UHT helicopters in service with the German KHR36 helicopter regiment in Afghanistan, each with a 12.7 mm M3P machine gun and 400 rounds. The container weighs 138 kg, and the machine gun has a rate of fire of 1025 rounds per minute.
Modified by Eurocopter to the Asgard-F standard (Afghanistan Stabilization German Army Rapid Deployment - Full), these Tiger helicopters also carry 19-round 70mm rocket launchers and guided missiles MBDA Hot.
Iranian helicopter Hesa Shahed 285
Another attack helicopter, which still has a turret machine gun mount, is the Iranian Hesa Shahed (Witness) 285. This is a very light (1450 kg) single-seat vehicle - modification of the Bell 206 JetRanger. The helicopter, designated AH-85A, is armed with a single-barreled 7.62 mm PKMT machine gun in the front turret; it is reportedly in limited service with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Air Force.
A gun
The displacement of machine guns by cannons as helicopter weapons has a completely rational explanation. America discovered for itself in Vietnam, and later the USSR in Afghanistan, that machine guns mounted on a helicopter were easily “shot” from the ground with heavy automatic weapons.
In ground-air operations, the 7.62-mm machine gun is effective only at a distance of about 500 meters and only against unarmored targets, for example, personnel in open space. The 12.7mm machine gun increases the firing range to 1000 meters and can deal with a wider range of targets. The cannon (capable of firing high-explosive ammunition) starts with a caliber of 20 mm; it is quite effective at distances up to 1700 meters and can destroy light armored vehicles.
A front mounted turret allows the cannon to be raised above the fuselage line. In the case of the Eurocopter Tiger HAP helicopter of the French army, the 30-mm Nexter Systems 30M781 cannon in the THL30 turret can rotate 30 degrees up and down and 90 degrees in each direction
A moose-painted Mi-24V helicopter of the Hungarian army demonstrates the original front gondola with a four-barreled 12, 7-mm machine gun 9A624 (YakB-12, 7)
Romanian helicopter IAR-330L Puma with a Nexter Systems THL20 gondola with a 20M621 single-barrel cannon
One example of a 20mm attack helicopter armament is the Nexter Systems THL20 nacelle with a 20M621 single-barrel cannon. It is installed on the Romanian IAR-330L Puma machines, and was also selected for the Indian HAL Light Combat Helicopter (LCH). Another front ventral mount GI-2 from the South African company Denel Land Systems is designed to modernize the Mi-24 helicopters of the Algerian Air Force. GI-2 is also installed on Denel Rooivalk (Kestrel). These guns usually have a rate of fire of 700 - 750 rounds per minute.
If a high rate of fire is required (which, in general, is not needed when firing at ground targets, but may be preferable when firing at aircraft and high-speed boats), then a gun with several barrels is advisable.
Close-up of a 20mm M197 Gatling cannon in the nacelle of an AH-1Z helicopter
A typical example is the M197 triple-barreled 20mm Gatling cannon from General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, which can fire at rates of fire up to 1,500 rounds per minute and is mounted in a nacelle on the Bell AH-1J / W helicopter, on the new AH-1Z helicopter, and on AgustaWestland A129. One of the reasons for choosing the A129 as the core of the Turkish Atak program was the superior accuracy of its M197 cannon mounted in the Oto Melara TM197B turret.
When developing the Mi-24 in the 1980s, in order to meet operational requirements in Afghanistan, Mil Design Bureau first of all replaced the original four-barreled machine gun YakB-12, 7 with a twin-barreled 23-mm GSh-23L cannon on a movable turret. Only 25 Mi-24VP were manufactured, but the scope of the GSh-23L gun was not limited to this helicopter, it is installed in a cannon container with 250 rounds (UPK-23-250) under the wings of various Russian helicopters.
During the production of the Mi-24P, the front turret was abandoned in favor of the GSh-30 double-barreled 30-mm cannon, mounted on the right side of the fuselage. However, the GSh-23 ventral gondola (NPPU-23) returned in the export version of the Mi-35M, which is in service with Brazil and Venezuela.
The 30mm Chain Gun, with a rate of fire of 625 rounds per minute, is an integral visual element of the Apache attack helicopter silhouette. Since then, the cannon has been adapted for other applications, including a shipborne remote-controlled installation.
With a few notable exceptions (AH-1 and A129 series), most attack helicopters are fitted with a 30mm cannon. The leader was a Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter with an Alliant Techsystems (ATK) M230 Chain Gun in a gondola under the front cockpit.
Another example is the Eurocopter Tiger ARH / HAD / HAP with a Nexter Systems 30M781 cannon in the THL30 ventral turret. As mentioned earlier, the Tiger UHT helicopter of the German army does not have a turret, but the installation of a 30 mm Rheimetall / Mauser RMK30 recoilless revolving cannon (Rueckstossfreie Maschinenkanone 30) in a flexible suspension, firing caseless ammunition with a rate of fire of 300 rounds / min. Is being considered.
With the further refinement of the Soviet Mi-24 helicopter with the BMP-2, the proven single-barreled 30-mm 2A42 cannon with double feed was borrowed. The cannon's rate of fire is selectable between 200 and 550 rounds per minute.
In the case of the Mi-28N, the 2A42 cannon is installed in the NPPU-28N gondola under the front cockpit, but on the Ka-50/52 helicopter this cannon is installed in the trunnions on the right side of the fuselage and can be rotated vertically by 40.5 degrees.
This Mi-28N night hunter illustrates three types of weapons: a 30-mm 2A42 cannon with double feed in the NPU-28N ventral gondola, 80-mm S-80 missiles in 20-round B8V20-A mounts and radio-controlled armor-piercing missiles in eight-tube guides
Ventral gondola NPPU-28N close-up
Distinguished from the AH-1W in its four-bladed propeller, this Bell AH-1Z Cobra Zulu from the 367 ‘Scarface’ Light Helicopter Division is armed with a 20mm M197 Gatling cannon and 19-tube Hydra-70 missile launchers. It also carries a pair of AGM-114 Hellfire four-tube missile launchers and two Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder missile launchers.
Unguided rockets
The guns discussed above represent an economical means of dealing with a wide range of targets defined at large angles of deviation from the aircraft axis. However, helicopter guns can easily be played up with modern air defense systems. For example, the widely used four-barreled 23-mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun ZSU-23, which fires at a speed of up to 4000 rounds per minute, has an actual slant range of 2000 meters. Whereas MANPADS have a maximum range of 4000 - 6500 meters.
Unguided air-launched missiles can, in turn, exceed ground-based automatic weapons in range. The most common western unguided missiles are the 68mm SNEB from Thales / TDA Armements and the 2.75 inch / 70mm Hydra-70 from General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, the FZ90 missile from Forges de Zeebrugge and the CRV7 missile from Magellan Aerospace.
Hydra-70 missile family
The Hydra-70 rocket is a modification of the FFAR (Folding-Fin Aircraft Rocket) that was developed in the late 1940s as an unguided air-to-air missile, mainly in order to quickly and reliably hit a Soviet bomber carrying atomic bomb. She served as a temporary tool until such time as guided missiles such as the AIM-7 entered service.
The modern Hydra-70 is produced with nine different warheads, including the M151 (4.5 kg high-explosive), M229 (7.7 kg high-explosive) and M255A1 (with striking elements), plus options for a smoke screen, lighting and practical. Over four million Hydra-70 rockets have been produced by GDATP since 1994. It is charged in 7- and 19-pipe installations.
The Canadian CRV7 missile is said to have superior performance with an effective range of up to 8,000 meters. Over 800,000 of these missiles were manufactured for 13 countries.
The Russian 57mm S-5 missile is currently being supplanted by the 80mm S-8, which weighs 11.1-15.2 kg and is mounted on helicopters in a 20-pipe B8V20-A launcher. It develops a maximum peak speed of Mach 1, 8 and has a maximum range of 4500 meters. The S-8KOM has an armor-piercing cumulative warhead, and the S-8BM is designed to destroy personnel in fortifications.
The Mi-28 can also carry two B-13L1 launchers, each carrying five 122mm S-13 missiles, which are practically the most powerful missiles fired from helicopters. The S-13T weighing 75 kg has a tandem warhead capable of penetrating one meter of reinforced concrete or six meters of soil. The 68-kg S-13OF has a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, which creates a cloud of 450 diamond-shaped elements of 25-30 grams each.
The Mi-28N is capable of carrying two 240 mm S-24B missiles weighing 232 kg each. It can be noted that Russian attack helicopters use bombs weighing from 50 to 500 kg and a universal small cargo container KMGU-2 for dropping submunitions.
It should be noted that due to their special nature, laser-guided missiles will be considered in the following reviews. They were developed relatively recently and are intended, in particular, to provide new effective weapons for light universal helicopters, which are much cheaper to operate in comparison with specialized attack helicopters.
On the Ka-50 helicopter, the 30-mm Shipunov cannon, mounted in the trunnions on the starboard side of the fuselage, has elevation angles (vertically) from +3.5 degrees to -37 degrees. The photo shows the Ka-50 with 20-tube B8V20-A blocks for 80-mm S-8 missiles and UPP-800 six-tube launchers for 9M121 Whirlwind armor-piercing missiles
The MBDA Mistral 2 missile with IR guidance weighing 18, 7 kg has a slightly greater firepower compared to missiles launched from MANPADS. On a Eurocopter Tiger helicopter, missiles are installed in a dual Atam launcher (Air-To-Air Mistral)
Vympel R-73 rocket is installed on Mi-28 and Ka-50/52 helicopters
Air-to-air missiles
The heaviest guided air-to-air weapons are the 105-kg Vympel R-73 missile, or according to NATO classification AA-11 (on the Mi-28 and Ka-50/52) and the 87-kg Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder (on the AH -1W / Z). Both have excellent range for short-range missile standards; the declared figure for the R-73 base rocket (when launched from jet aircraft in a frontal battle) is 30 km. The choice of the AIM-9 missile by the US Marine Corps for the Cobra series helicopters, most likely, was determined by the need to minimize the number of different types of missiles on one aircraft.
It was suggested that the Brazilian Mi-35M helicopters could be equipped with MAA-1B Piranha II Mectron or Darter-A Denel / Mectron air-to-air missiles.
The desire to reduce the mass of onboard weapons as much as possible contributes to the adaptation of portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) as an air-to-air helicopter self-defense weapon. The leaders here are the 18.7-kg MBDA Atam (Air-To-Air Mistral, mounted on the Tiger), and even the lighter 10.6-kg 9K38 Igla or SA-18 missiles (on the Mi-28 and Ka-50/52) and 10.4 kg Raytheon AIM-92 Stinger (on an AH-64 helicopter). The Atam complex is based on the Mistral 2 rocket and is a dual launcher. It has shock and remote fuses and a maximum range of 6500 meters.
For a relatively light attack helicopter, the AgustaWestland A129 has a very effective armament system. In addition to the 20-mm Gatling GD M197 cannon, it carries four MBDA Hot and four AGM-114 Hellfire armor-piercing missiles from Lockheed Martin.
Air-to-surface missiles
Attack helicopters were developed primarily for the destruction of armored combat vehicles, and therefore the most important type of weapon for them is traditionally anti-tank guided weapons. In the early 1940s, Germany was a pioneer in wire-guided missile guidance. In the early post-war period, the UK conducted several tests and concluded that the concept was too prone to breakage and damage. As a result, Britain subsequently missed out on an entire generation of anti-tank missiles.
In the very first missiles, manual command guidance was used, which gave poor accuracy. In general, it was decided instead to accept the so-called Saclos guidance (semiautomatic command to line-of-sight - semi-automatic control signals along the line of sight). Here the operator keeps the sight on the target, and the system automatically monitors the rocket exhaust stream and generates corrective signals to return it to the line of sight.
The first air-to-ground missile in the world installed on a helicopter was the French Nord AS.11 (adapted SS.11 ground launch missile), which had manual control by wire and was adopted by the American army under the designation AGM-22. It was installed on two UH-1B helicopters and was first used by the army in real conditions in October 1965. The AGM-22 was later supplanted by the (Hughes) BGM-71 Tow, which was also wire-guided but used Saclos optical tracking. It was first used in combat conditions in May 1972, where it destroyed the T-54 and PT-76 tanks. The most widely used wire guided missiles are the 12.5 kg 9M14M Baby-2 or AT-3, 22.5 kg Raytheon BGM-71 Tow and 24.5 kg Euromissile Hot. Wire guidance is limited to a range of about 4,000 meters, but this fit well with the concept of the Warsaw Pact of the last century for an armored strike on the northern German plain. Then it was believed that the review of targets at long ranges was unlikely due, as a rule, to poor visibility and smoke on the battlefield.
Radio guidance eliminates this range limitation, but may be vulnerable to jamming. As for the guidance by wire, here the line of sight on the target must be maintained throughout the missile's flight.
Radio-controlled anti-tank missile 9M114 Cocoon
One of the first examples of a radio-controlled anti-tank missile was the widespread 31.4-kg 9M114 Cocoon or AT-6, this missile was used as part of the 9K114 Shturm complex. The basic armament, which entered service in 1976, had a range of 5,000 meters.
In the 90s, 9K114 began to replace the 49.5-kg complex with the 9K120 Attack-B or AT-9. The complex retained the launch guides and the 9K114 sighting system, but at the same time it received a supersonic missile (Mach 1, 6) 9M120, which in the basic version has a range of 5800 meters. The Mi-28N can carry 16 of these missiles in two eight-tube blocks.
The 9M120 has a tandem warhead to combat armored targets, while the 9M120F has a thermobaric warhead to destroy lightly armored targets, buildings, caves and bunkers. The 9A2200 variant has an enlarged core warhead to combat aircraft.
The 13-kg laser-guided Lahat rocket can be fired from a tube launcher from an aircraft or from a 105/120 mm tank gun. A fully loaded four-tube helicopter launcher weighs less than 89 kg. Lahat has a range of over 8000 meters
Launch container for four MBDA Pars-3 LR missiles mounted on a Eurocopter Tiger helicopter. Pars3-LR has infrared guidance with automatic recognition, which allows you to lock the target after launch
Laser guidance provides accuracy regardless of the aiming range. The coded laser beam allows you to designate a target using another source, air or ground. This facilitates target acquisition from cover or outside the operator's visual line-of-sight range and minimizes the exposure time of the helicopter from which the missile is launched.
A prime example of a laser-guided missile is Lockheed Martin's 43-kg AGM-114 Hellfire, which has a range of 7,000 meters in direct sight and 8,000 meters when launched indirectly. The missile is supersonic, which reduces its exposure time for enemy interceptors in launch mode with target illumination. Helicopters AH-1Z and AH-64 can carry 16 Hellfire missiles. The lighter A129 and Tiger can carry eight of these missiles.
Hellfire was first used in real-world conditions in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989. Traditionally, it was used with three types of warheads: AGM-114K with a tandem warhead for armored targets, AGM-114M high-explosive fragmentation for unarmored targets and AGM-114N with a metal charge to destroy urban structures, bunkers, radars, communications centers and bridges.
The AGM-114 Hellfire rocket on the Predator UAV pylon (above). Hellfire rocket components (bottom)
Starting in 2012, the Hellfire missile became available with the AGM-114R multipurpose warhead, which allows you to select its effect on the target (high-explosive or armor-piercing) right before launch. Depending on the type of target, the AGM-114R also allows you to choose an angle of encounter, from almost horizontal to almost vertical.
Other examples of laser-guided armor-piercing missiles are the 13 kg Lahat from Israel Aerospace Industries and the 49.8 kg Mokopa from Denel Dynamics, which have a maximum range of 8,000 and 10,000 meters, respectively.
AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire, installed on the AH-64D / E Longbow Apache helicopter, has a radar guidance system; the millimeter radar provides fire-and-forget capabilities day and night and in any weather.
In the Soviet Union, in turn, they decided that laser guidance was too susceptible to traps and instead developed a flight along a laser beam, although in this case the miss distance increases with range. A prime example of such a system is the 45 kg 9K121 Whirlwind or AT-16 rocket, which has a peak speed in excess of Mach 1.75 and a range of 8000 meters when launched from a helicopter. The vortex is located in two six-pipe UPP-800 units on a Ka-50/52 helicopter. The missile has a remote fuse for firing at air targets.
The next Russian missile in this category is the Hermes-A (photo above) from the KBP, a two-stage missile that flies at Mach 3 for a maximum range of 20 km.
Infrared targeting
Aiming with a laser beam allows you to hit specific targets, but in some circumstances (for example, in urban combat), target designation may become impossible, despite the known general location of the target. In such situations, an accurate attack is still possible due to a combination of inertial and infrared guidance. When combined with sophisticated target recognition algorithms, infrared guidance provides fire-and-forget capabilities and allows multiple launch salvos against multiple targets.
German helicopter Tiger UHT and its armament. Top photo shows a white rocket in the foreground - Pars-3 LR
The leader in the infrared targeting category is the 49-kg MBDA Pars-3 LR missile, which has a high subsonic speed (Mach 0.85) and a maximum range of 7000 meters. The missile is installed on a German Tiger UHT helicopter in four-tube launchers in a ready-to-launch mode; during flight, its sensor is constantly cooled. Four rockets in fully autonomous mode can be fired back in less than 10 seconds. It usually uses a pre-launch target acquisition mode, but also has a proactive mode for temporarily concealed targets.
The Pars-3 LR can be launched in a direct attack mode, for example, against bunkers, but it is usually used in a dive mode against armored vehicles. Its warhead can penetrate 1000 mm of rolled homogeneous armor protected by ERA.
Full-scale production of the Pars-3 LR was launched in late 2012 by Parsys, a joint venture between MBDA Germany and Diehl BGT Defense, under a contract with the German defense procurement agency, which will supply 680 missiles to the German army.
Another relatively new development is the Spike-ER manufactured by the Israeli company Rafael. The Spike-ER, the first armor-piercing fiber-optic guided missile, has a range of 8000 meters and allows target acquisition before or after launch. Together with the transport and launch container, it weighs 33 kg and has a dual-mode optoelectronic / infrared sensor that allows day / night operations.
The Rafael Spike missile family includes the Spike-ER, which has a range of 8000 meters. It is guided over a fiber optic cable; was selected by Israel, Italy, Romania and Spain for installation on their helicopters
It is assumed that the Spike-ER is in service with the Israeli AH-1 and Romanian IAR-330 helicopters, it is also selected for the Italian AH-109 and Spanish Tiger Had helicopters. It is part of the Spike missile family and has a high level of uniformity with ground launch options. Spike is also manufactured by the German company EuroSpike, a joint venture between Diehl BGT Defense and Rheinmetall Defense Electronics.
Photographs of the Ka-52 helicopter with the Kh-25 or AS-10 tactical missiles installed on board 300-kg (which do not "fit" into the usual rocket armament for helicopters) in two versions are available to the general public: the laser-guided Kh-25ML and the anti-radar X -25MP.
Kh-25ML laser-guided missile
