We used to think that our helicopters are some of the best in the world, and some of them have no equal. However, as we know, as a result of a long-term tender, the Indian Ministry of Defense ultimately decided to purchase American AN-64D Apache Longbow helicopters (Longbow in translation from English - Longbow), and not Russian Mi- 28NE "Night Hunter". Are the Apaches really superior to our Mis? Let's try to figure it out.
It is known that electronic equipment has become the most important part of helicopter armament. The effectiveness of reconnaissance and weapon control depends on it. The beginning of the creation of the Mi-28NE helicopter was the Soviet Union's response to the appearance of the American Apache helicopter. It should be recalled that the completion of work on the Mi-28NE fell on the period of Russian reforms, when the gap between our country and the West in radio-electronic, micro- and nanoelectronic, as well as computer technologies continued to grow. Today, none of the samples of Russian weapons being created can be 100% provided with elements of domestic production. The backward element base leads to an increase in the mass, dimensions of the equipment and its insufficient efficiency and reliability.
Let us consider what combat characteristics of Apache helicopters made the Indian Ministry of Defense buy them.
EXPORT DIGNITY OF AN-64D "APACH LONGBOU"
The avionics (avionics) of the Apache helicopter and the homing heads (GOS) of various modifications of the Hellfire missile were developed under conditions of a high level of development of electronic and other technologies. The Hellfire anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) has been constantly modernized and has gone from a second-generation missile (AGM-114A) with a semi-active laser seeker to a third-generation missile (AGM-114B) using a radar (RL) seeker.
When creating an ATGM complex for the Apache, the task was to significantly reduce the time the helicopter spends under targeted enemy fire when guiding missiles thanks to highly intelligent avionics and the ability to launch long-range missiles at a cluster of armored vehicles.
The main advantage of the avionics of the Apache Longbow helicopter is that by the time the helicopter reaches the optimal altitude for salvo firing, targets have already been identified in order of importance and missiles are aimed at them. The avionics of the American helicopter, having the ability to distinguish between anti-aircraft systems and wheeled vehicles, as well as other targets, significantly increases the Apache's survivability on the battlefield.
The Apache Longbow onboard radio-electronic equipment provides: automatic detection of stationary and moving targets at the maximum firing range; identification and determination of the degree of importance of each goal in five classes (classifies and prioritizes); tracking targets, the coordinates of which relative to the helicopter are transmitted to the rocket if it is outside the target homing head's capture zone; transmission of the exact coordinates of detected targets to other helicopters, attack aircraft or ground points.
The tandem warhead (warhead) of the Hellfire missile, due to the imperfect design of the dynamic protection (DZ) of Russian tanks (the length of the DZ element is 250 mm), has a probability of overcoming it 0, 8-0, 9 and armor penetration 1000 mm, which provides a high probability of hitting armored vehicles …
The high level of development of electronics allows the US Department of Defense, since 2016, to switch to the adoption of a single universal fourth-generation JAGM ATGM for installation on various carriers of the ground forces, air force and naval forces. The new missile, installed on the Apache, will have a firing range of 16 km, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of destruction of enemy tanks (the firing range of ATGMs from aircraft is up to 28 km). As a result, due to the long firing range of the JAGM missile, the helicopter does not enter the enemy's short-range air defense system.
This ATGM has the following main tactical and technical characteristics: armor penetration - 1200 mm, type of warhead - cumulative tandem / high-explosive fragmentation, type of guidance system - inertial, digital autopilot and multi-mode seeker, type of propulsion system - solid propellant rocket, launch mass of the rocket - 52 kg, rocket length - 1.72 m, rocket body diameter - 0.178 m.
INSUFFICIENT LIFE
The Mi-28NE helicopter is designed to engage ground and air targets. The reference books list the components of the avionics of this machine. But for some reason, there is no assessment of the conformity of the avionics to the functional purpose of the attack helicopter. Particular attention in this regard deserves the analysis of the process of destruction of armored vehicles and other ground targets using ATGM "Attack", which is the basis of the Mi-28NE ammunition. In this case, a semi-automatic guidance method is used to control the missile, in which the gunner holds the sight on the target, and the guidance system automatically guides the missile towards it. The coordinates of the missile relative to the aiming line are determined using the optical system (located on the Mi-28NE) and the tracer installed on the missile. Control commands from the helicopter are transmitted to the rocket by radio.
ATGM "Attack" has the following main characteristics: rocket mass - 42.5 kg, mass of a transport and launch container with a rocket - 48.5 kg, rocket diameter - 130 mm, firing range - 6000 m, average flight speed - 400 m / s, warhead - tandem, rod, SLM (volumetric detonating mixture), warhead weight - 7.4 kg, armor penetration - 800 mm, the probability of overcoming the built-in DZ with a length of 500 mm - 0.5.
The use of ATGM "Attack" is extremely dangerous, since the total time of visual search for a ground target and missile control is longer than the reaction time of modern air defense systems. The reaction time is understood as the time from the detection of the helicopter to the descent of the anti-aircraft missile from the launcher, which for a short-range anti-aircraft missile-gun complex (ZRPK) is 4-10 s. The Mi-28NE is exposed to the greatest danger when firing at a range of 4–6 km, which requires an increase in flight altitude to ensure reliable visual contact with the target. With the price of a helicopter equal to the price of 3-4 tanks, it is doubtful that the Mi-28NE with second-generation anti-tank systems in the context of the development of foreign air defense systems will solve the problem of hitting targets taking into account the efficiency-cost criterion.
With regard to the solution of a particular combat mission, 7 variants of the Mi-28NE ammunition are provided, consisting of various combinations of obsolete ammunition: ATGM "Attack", anti-aircraft guided missiles (SAM) "Igla", unguided aircraft missiles (NAR) S-8 and S- 13, as well as shots to the 30 mm 2A42 cannon. The missile "Attack" can be equipped with either a cumulative tandem warhead to destroy armored vehicles, or a rod - to destroy air targets, or a warhead equipped with a volume-detonating mixture to destroy ground targets.
In fact, ATGM "Attack" is a modernized version of the missile complex of the second generation "Shturm". But today it is unacceptable to equip expensive ATGM attack helicopters of the second generation and yesterday's avionics. Only the installation of a third-generation ATGM and modern avionics will increase the effectiveness of helicopter weapons.
The 2A42 helicopter cannon has a mass twice the mass of the M230 cannon of the Apache helicopter, and the ammunition of the latter is almost three times that of our helicopter, and all this with the same caliber. Note that if the M-230 cannon was specially developed for the Apache helicopter, the 2A42 installation was “borrowed” from the BMP-2.
The results of comparing the weapons and avionics of the Mi-28NE and AN-64D helicopters are not in our favor.
The Igla anti-aircraft missile system was put into service in 1983. The probability of a fighter being hit by one Igla anti-aircraft missile equipped with a thermal homing head is 0.4–0.6. The fighter's speed should not exceed 300 m / s. When targets are fired at thermal interference, the probability of hitting them with one missile defense system will be 0, 2–0, 3.
The S-8 unguided aircraft missile (maximum firing range - 4 km) with a cumulative fragmentation warhead has 400 mm armor penetration, which is sufficient to effectively destroy unarmored and lightly armored vehicles. But the Mi-28NE when using this weapon can be shot down not only by short-range air defense systems, but also as a result of shelling by portable anti-aircraft missile systems (Stinger, Mistral) located in the enemy's battle formations.
The media notes that the Mi-28NE has a high level of combat survivability, the cockpit of which is fully armored. But is it really so? Anything that flies cannot have a serious booking. What kind of armor can we talk about when small arms are capable of incapacitating rotary-wing vehicles? So, for example, a 12.7 mm armor-piercing incendiary bullet (index 7BZ-1) penetrates 20 mm armor at a distance of 1500 m. The crew's armored box is made of 10 mm aluminum alloy sheets, on which ceramic tiles are glued. This design can save the crew from 7.62 mm bullets.
The main drawback of the Mi-28NE is its outdated armament, which is incapable of hitting targets without entering the enemy's short-range air defense system. These helicopters in the ranks of the army aviation are unlikely to make a significant contribution to the air support of the Ground Forces.
INFORMATION FOR REFLECTION
The meeting of the State Commission chaired by the Air Force Commander-in-Chief Alexander Zelin, at which the decision was made to adopt the Mi-28NE helicopter, took place in the last days of 2008. It should be noted that the creation of this machine took 30 years. A year before this event in the journal "Military Thought" (No. 8 for 2007) there was an article "Features of military scientific research to substantiate the concepts and designs of promising aircraft systems", prepared by a team of authors: Colonel Ph. D. A. L. Gusev, lieutenant colonel, Ph. D. A. K. Denisenko, Colonel Doctor of Technical Sciences V. S. Platunov. In this work, much attention at the initial stage of the creation of aviation complexes (AC), including helicopters, is paid to military scientific research related to the substantiation of concepts, looks and requirements for promising and modernized aircraft. It can be assumed that after this article there was no instruction to carry out, according to a new methodology, in terms of modernizing the Mi-28NE, work on justifying new weapons and avionics that would really correspond to the new attack helicopter. It is perplexing that this article, being a breakthrough in the methodology for creating an AK, turned out to be unused in relation to the Mi-28N helicopter.
The Mi-28NE helicopter was intended mainly to destroy American tanks. But the Americans actively improved armored vehicles, as a result of which modifications appeared from M1 to M1A1, M1A2, M1A2 SEP. Thousands of tanks have been upgraded to date. For example, it is completely useless for a Mi-28NE helicopter to fire an Attack missile on an M1A2 SEP tank, on which a highly effective active protection system is installed. The modernization of "Abrams" should be completed in 2020.
It must be assumed that the creators of the Mi-28NE did not follow the modernization of foreign armored vehicles and did not carry out adequate technical measures. This is evidenced by the fact that the tactical and technical tasks and tactical and technical requirements issued to the creators of the Mi-28NE in 1978, 30 years later, needed to be clarified. But that did not happen.
What did the Americans achieve by winning the tender where the attack helicopters were presented? They reinforced the Indian army with Apaches to combat Chinese tanks. This reflects the US policy of containing China. Following this event, the Apache helicopter base will be organized, where American instructors will be able to conduct classes on studying the materiel of helicopters and piloting them. Ammunition storage depots and helicopter repair shops will be equipped.
Russia for a long time lost its place in India in attack helicopters, which damaged the Mi-28NE brand. This situation requires dismantling and making appropriate decisions in order to prevent a crisis in the field of creating domestic attack helicopters.
