Aviation 2024, November

Nowadays, few people remember the first Western anti-tank guided missile, the Nord SS.10, which was adopted by the French army in 1955. The world's first serial ATGM was created on the basis of the German Ruhrstahl X-7 and was controlled by wire. In turn, on the basis of SS.10 specialists

By the time Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, the Luftwaffe did not have well-armored attack aircraft comparable to the Soviet Il-2, or specialized anti-tank aircraft. Within the framework of the "Lightning War" concept, provide direct air support to advancing units and

By the second half of the 70s, the USSR already had a noticeable number of Mi-24 combat helicopters, and the military had accumulated some experience in their operation. Even in the ideal conditions of the exercises, it turned out to be problematic to use "twenty-fours" simultaneously for fire support and landing. In that

By the beginning of World War II, there were no serial attack aircraft in Great Britain and the United States that could effectively deal with German tanks. The experience of hostilities in France and North Africa showed the low efficiency of fighters and bombers in service when using

According to the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 16, 1976, work was officially started on the creation of a new generation of combat helicopter. Its main task was to be the fight against enemy armored vehicles, fire support for ground forces, escorting its own

The combat helicopter Mi-24, which was the main striking force of the army aviation, was absolutely not suitable for deployment on large landing ships. Therefore, in the early 70s, the Kamov Design Bureau, which by that time had become the main designer of helicopters for the Navy, began to create a transport-combat helicopter in

The built-in large-caliber four-barreled machine gun YakB-12.7, mounted on the Mi-24V, was well suited to combat manpower and unarmored equipment. There is a known case when a bus with rebels was literally cut in half by a dense line of YakB-12.7 in Afghanistan. But the helicopter crews

The experience of local conflicts has shown that a helicopter armed with anti-tank guided missiles is one of the most effective means of fighting tanks. For one shot down anti-tank helicopter, on average, there are 15-20 burned and destroyed tanks. But a conceptual approach to

Back in the years of World War II, attack aircraft pilots were faced with the fact that it was very difficult to get hits from guns into a single tank. But at the same time, the speed of the Il-2 was about half that of the Su-25, which is considered not too fast an aircraft with good conditions for an attack

In the post-war period, work continued in the USSR on new armored attack aircraft. Simultaneously with the creation of fighters and front-line bombers with turbojet engines, the design of attack aircraft with piston engines was carried out. Compared to those already in service

In the mid-30s, military theorists in different countries began to view tanks operating in conjunction with motorized infantry as the main strike weapon in a future war. At the same time, it seemed quite logical to create new anti-tank weapons. Well protected from anti-aircraft fire

Despite the low efficiency of supersonic fighter-bombers in the implementation of direct air support for ground units and operations against tanks, the Air Force leadership until the early 70s saw no need for a low-speed armored attack aircraft. Work

Naval Air Station Key West is located in the southwestern part of Florida. A naval base was established in the area to counter piracy in 1823. It was expanded substantially in 1846 during the Mexican-American War. During the American-Spanish War of 1898

After the end of the Cold War, US defense spending in the 1990s underwent significant cuts. This affected not only the scale of arms purchases and new developments, but also led to the elimination of a number of military bases in the mainland and outside the United States. The functions of those bases that succeeded

The American state of Florida, due to its geographical location and climate, is a very convenient place for the deployment of military bases, test centers and proving grounds. First of all, this applies to airfields and training grounds for the aviation of the Navy and the Marine Corps. Of the 10 operating in the United States

Il-2 attack aircraft proved to be a powerful means of destroying enemy personnel, equipment and fortifications. Due to the presence of powerful built-in small arms and cannon weapons, a wide range of suspended aircraft weapons and armor protection, the Il-2 was the most advanced aircraft

Despite the efforts made, the Americans did not manage to turn the tide in Vietnam. The use of the slow B-52 strategic bombers was too expensive, not only in terms of operation. In the late 60s, in the sky of Indochina, they were opposed by 85 and 100-mm anti-aircraft guns

In the early sixties at the Eglin airbase, intensive tests of air-launched cruise missiles were carried out. The apotheosis of these trials was Operation Blue Nose. On April 11, 1960, a B-52 from the 4135th Strategic Wing, taking off in Florida, headed for the North Pole, carrying two

Eglin airbase in the 50s of the last century became one of the main test centers of the US Air Force. In Florida, they not only tested aircraft and missile weapons, but also tested very unusual aircraft. In mid-1955, the airbase employees and the local population were surprised

Unlike many other facilities of the US Air Force, closed or mothballed after the end of World War II, the demand for the Eglin airbase and the nearby training ground only increased in the post-war period. In the 50s, after the Air Force Armament Center moved to Eglin, at a nearby training ground

By the mid-60s of the last century, the Israeli aviation industry had reached a level of development at which it became possible to serially build its own aircraft. In 1966, IAI (Israeli Aircraft Industries) began designing a light transport and passenger aircraft with

In 1982, at the time of the outbreak of hostilities in Lebanon, the Syrian Air Force had Su-20 fighter-bombers, as well as one squadron of the latest Su-22M at that time. From the first days of the war, these aircraft were actively used for bombing Israeli positions. ten

With the liquidation of N.S. Khrushchev of assault aviation as a class, writing off the existing piston Il-10M to scrap metal and refusing to release the unparalleled Il-40 jet attack aircraft, this niche was occupied by the MiG-15 and MiG-17 jet fighters. These aircraft had quite powerful cannon armament and

In 1967, ten years after the start of production, export supplies of the specialized Su-7B fighter-bomber in the export modification Su-7BMK began. The planes were supplied both to the Warsaw Pact allies and to the "developing countries of a socialist orientation." By

There is much in common between these two aircraft, both of them appeared at the height of the Cold War, becoming part of the national air defense system for many years. At the same time, for a number of reasons, they failed to displace other aircraft used as fighter-interceptors in this field. Aircraft were created

In the early 1920s, a discussion broke out among the aircraft designers of the young Soviet republic about what aircraft should be built from. The abundance of forests in the USSR, it seemed, should have led to the conclusion that Soviet aircraft should be made of wood. But there were among the Soviet aircraft designers and those

After the end of World War II, the French had to rebuild the fleet and naval aviation from scratch. France received four military-built aircraft carriers on lease from the United States and Great Britain. Ships, mostly obsolete, transferred to France by the Allies and received as reparations

In 1940, the Su-2 (BB-1) bomber, designed by Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, was put into production. This aircraft was created as part of the Ivanov program, which implied the creation of a single-engine, mass multipurpose aircraft capable of performing the functions of a reconnaissance and light

Despite attempts to simplify and reduce the cost of the strike "Mirage" 5, it remained too expensive, complex and vulnerable to use it as a massive low-altitude attack aircraft designed to provide air support for ground forces. In 1964, the headquarters of the French Air Force

Created in the late 1950s by Lockheed, the P-3 Orion BPA (base patrol aircraft) aircraft belongs to those aircraft that are considered to be "eternal". Its progenitor appeared in 1957, when the L- 188 Electra - one of the first aircraft in the United States with a turboprop

July 8, 2013 marks the 65th anniversary of the first flight of the Il-28 jet bomber. The creation of an aircraft of this class became possible due to the fact that in 1947 in the USSR, a reliable, with a large resource, English turbojet engine with a centrifugal compressor was launched into licensed mass production

Bell UH-1 Iroquois is an American multipurpose helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron, also known as Huey. This is one of the most famous and mass-produced aircraft in the history of helicopter engineering. The history of the UH-1 began in the mid-fifties, when it was announced

At the time of the German attack on the USSR, our aviation was armed with two types of aircraft guns: 20-mm ShVAK (Shpitalny-Vladimirova large-caliber aviation), the design of which was in many respects similar to the 7.62-mm ShKAS aircraft machine gun and 23-mm. VYa (Volkova-Yartseva) .20 mm ShVAK cannon

The RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV program was launched in May 1995, when the Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical (TRA) project was declared the winner in the competition for the best UAV under the Tier II + program. The competition lasted 6 months, five firms - applicants took part in it. New drone among

The LOCKHEED T-33A two-seater trainer aircraft is one of those long-lived pilots that began the careers of several generations of pilots. It was based on the F-80 Shooting Star first-generation jet fighter, but managed

Aircraft R-51 "Mustang" during the Second World War were used almost everywhere. In Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, the aircraft was primarily known as an escort fighter due to its long range. In England, "Mustangs" were used as interceptors

In the late 60s, the United States began designing a long-range carrier-based interceptor to replace the F-4 Phantom-2. In the final of the competition were projects McDonnell Douglas and Grumman. The McDonnell-Douglas firm had a fixed-wing design, and Grumman's wing sweep changed

The Iranian air force is considered an independent branch of the armed forces, which also includes air defense forces. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) also has its own Air Force. The Air Force has 12 air bases, including ten

Sweden was and remains one of the few countries in the world capable of independently creating first-class aviation technology. The combat aircraft of this Scandinavian country have always been distinguished by some kind of "zest"; they cannot be confused with the machines of the same type from other countries. There are enough similar friends in the world

The most famous American combat aircraft of the 1960-1980s, the name of which has long been a household name for all fighters of the US Air Force and Navy. The world's first truly multipurpose supersonic fighter. Was the same symbol of the Cold War as the strategic