"Apaches", "Tigers" and all-all-all
Comparing attack helicopters is a thankless task. One of the reasons lies in the colossal experience in helicopter construction. The United States and the USSR / RF have accumulated so much theoretical and practical knowledge over the long decades of confrontation that it is difficult to imagine an openly unsuccessful attack helicopter. This, in general, also applies to most other helicopter-building countries. The rest, as they say, is a matter of taste: some like the Viper, some like the Ka-52. And someone is delighted with the Chinese WZ-10.
If we abstract as much as possible from personal preferences, then we must admit that at the moment the most technologically advanced machine of this class is the AH-64D Apache Block III or, in other words, AH-64E. It doesn't make much sense to list all its advantages: in short, the Americans were able to unleash the potential inherent in Apache Longbow to almost the full extent. However, perhaps the most interesting thing lies not in the helicopter itself, but in its armament, although modern weapons are, of course, by default a complex of everything.
The new Apache, like a number of other new US helicopters, will soon receive a new JAGM (Joint Air-to-Ground Missile) missile instead of the usual Hellfire. Back in June 2018, it became known that serial production of the JAGM had begun. The ammunition is capable of hitting targets at ranges of up to eight kilometers. Its mass is approximately 50 kilograms. The missile has an improved dual-mode homing head: semi-active laser and radar. Tests have shown that the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile is more reliable than its predecessor, and they also say that then its range can be increased to 16 kilometers. Of course, when launched at such a range, the requirements for the onboard electronics of the Apache helicopter itself will sharply increase. However, its competitor, the Mi-28N, also has difficulties: both with avionics and weapons.
Mi-28 as a concept
There is not the slightest doubt that Night Hunter as a platform deserves the highest praise. Purely conceptual. The simplest example is a tandem crew arrangement. Do not tell me, but such a scheme is much more universal than the side-by-side scheme, as on the Ka-52. It must be assumed that when turning the head, the crew commander can better see the surface and / or the potential enemy than the operator's shoulder (however, again, how many people, so many opinions).
In general, the Mi-28 is potentially the best attack helicopter in the Russian Federation. But there are, as they say, the nuances that we mentioned above. One example. As you know, the former commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces Viktor Bondarev, after his resignation, was drawn to frank statements. “The electronics are a failure: the pilot does not see anything, the pilot does not hear anything. These glasses, which they wear, they call "death to the pilots". The sky is cloudless - everything is fine, but if there is some kind of smoke, they walk for three days with red eyes,”the military said in November last year. This assessment did not concern the raw cars of the first batches, but rather a large-scale Mi-28N, in which, in theory, all (well, or almost all) childhood diseases were to be identified. Although this process is, of course, long and complex, that also needs to be understood.
The main drawback, which catches the eye almost immediately, is the absence of a millimeter-wave radar station on combat vehicles, like the Apache Longbow. It provides well-known advantages in identifying ground targets and then aiming high-precision weapons at them. Subject to the use of a missile with active radar homing heads AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire radar allows you to implement the notorious principle of "fire-and-forget". Without an overhead radar and advanced air-to-surface weapons, the Mi-28N is very similar in its capabilities to the AH-64A. The main difference lies, perhaps, in the fact that the latter was built in a much larger series than all versions of the Mi-28 combined.
First after Longbow
The most technologically advanced and potentially most advanced modification of the Mi-28, as we can see, did not appear out of the blue. The Mi-28NM was the result of numerous trials and errors, as well as a response to the achievements of overseas "friends". The main thing to talk about in this case is that we are not dealing with a “paper” project or an idea for the future. Flight tests of the new Mi-28NM attack helicopter began on October 12, 2016 at the Moscow Helicopter Plant. M. L. Mila. Then the first prototype OP-1 took off into the air. The event was watched by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Yuri Borisov. It was reported that the first flight of the Mi-28NM was successful and all the systems of the machine worked normally.
Purely visually, the main difference of the new car from all previous versions is the "felled" nose. There is one important improvement here that is not immediately apparent. The helicopter operator received much better lateral visibility due to a significantly redesigned cockpit canopy. By the way, the experience gained while working on the Mi-28UB was not in vain. In the front of the cockpit of the new helicopter, a second set of controls was installed, which, of course, provides new opportunities: both in terms of crew training and in terms of increasing the survivability of a combat vehicle in real combat. Another good point. Within the framework of the Mi-28NM project, it was previously proposed to use the new VK-2500P-01 / PS engines, which can be produced by the forces of the Russian defense industry and which meet the basic requirements of modernization.
The most important improvement concerns the same overhead radar station. She (possibly in the form of a mock-up) is present on the OP-1 prototype. In any case, it was previously announced that it is planned to install a standard over-sleeve radar of the H025 type. It is reportedly sensitive enough to detect a small UAV 20 kilometers away. It was reported that the radar allows the crew to track up to ten targets and point weapons at two of them. It is believed that Russian sensors of this type are capable of detecting a moving target of the "tank" type at a distance of about 20-25 km. Also important is the very theoretical possibility of using missiles with a radar guidance system, which should provide the helicopter with the utmost stealth. For the sake of interest, you can see a photo where you can see that from the "Apache", which is in the shelter, "sticks out" only the radar above the tube.
And this is where the fun begins. Does Russia have missiles that can be compared in their capabilities with the JAGM? Or at least with the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire? "Storms" and "Whirlwinds" with a laser guidance system that limits the pilot's space for maneuver after launch will surprise no one. About "Hermes-A", which was positioned almost as a miracle weapon, suspiciously for a long time almost nothing has been heard. It is worth recalling, however. The range of this ATGM should be approximately 15 kilometers. The manufacturer declares an optoelectronic system with optical capture and target tracking with a missile flight control by a laser beam. In general, there are makings of the "fire and forget" principle, but so far everything is very vague.
There is an alternative. In August 2018, the Army-2018 International Military-Technical Forum was held in Moscow. There, Russian Helicopters JSC presented a modified version of the export Mi-28NE equipped with 9M123M Chrysanthemum-VM long-range anti-tank guided missiles with a two-channel guidance system - a laser beam and a radio channel. It is pertinent to recall here one statement from 2016. “We are modernizing the Ataka and Chrysanthemum missiles to provide a higher detection, capture and destruction range for targets specifically for the Mi-28NM. The complex of guided missile weapons on board the helicopter is also being adapted to the new missiles,”General Designer of the Kolomna Machine Building Design Bureau Valery Kashin told TASS.
As you can see, the new Mi-28NM risks remaining: either a) with frankly old Soviet missiles, or b) with an ATGM, whose obsolescence will become noticeable in the coming years. The available products, apparently, are far from JAGM in terms of their capabilities, so the development of fundamentally new anti-tank missiles may become one of the priority areas in increasing the combat potential of the Russian Aerospace Forces attack helicopters.
