Combat helicopters are weapons of the 21st century

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In World War II, helicopters were used sporadically (to correct artillery fire and other auxiliary purposes). The military in all countries of the world did not attach much importance to these eccentric machines, believing that they were too vulnerable and capricious, and their flight characteristics were completely unsuitable for combat. In 1948, the command of the American army refused to buy them, considering helicopters an expensive and useless toy. It is impossible to say that the leadership of the Soviet armed forces treated them differently.

The Korean War, which began two years later, changed attitudes towards rotorcraft radically. It’s hard to even count how many American soldiers were saved thanks to simple and small air ambulance helicopters that carried the wounded on external slings (one person on each side of the transparent booth).

The Vietnam War expanded the scope of a new type of aviation technology. Along with the Huey UH-1, designed to transport manpower and armed with fairly simple fire weapons, combat helicopters appeared,designed for assault strikes. The military transport capabilities of the rotorcraft, which made millions of sorties and transported tens of millions of soldiers, acquired enormous importance. In a mobile war, the quality of helicopters, such as the ability to do without a runway, has acquired a special meaning.

Attack helicopters "Cobra" AN-1, armed with rockets and a 40-mm cannon, acquired in general the appearance that allows you to distinguish modern attack helicopters at first glance: a narrow fuselage with armored glass and a double cabin and the absence of any other functions not related to the main goal - the fire defeat of the enemy.

Rotorcraft aircraft also developed in the Soviet Union. Mi-24 combat helicopters, the development of which began in the late sixties, according to the plan of the customer, the Ministry of Defense, were supposed to combine two main functions - strike and transport. Like the American Cobra, which borrowed the power plant from the Iroquois - Huey, the propeller and engine of the proven and reliable Mi-8 were used in the design of the Soviet Mi-24. How well it turned out, time showed. These combat helicopters serve in the armies of many countries (and have been used in different wars). They have their shortcomings, but their advantages cannot be taken away.

The Apache AN-64 helicopter marked the direction of development of a new generation of combat rotorcraft designed to destroy armored vehiclesthe enemy with the help of ultra-precise technological fire systems. Design bureaus of different countries (from Russia to the Republic of South Africa) went along this path. Combat helicopters of the second generation are distinguished by high survivability due to armor and rational layout of vital components, powerful weapons equipped with intelligent fire control systems, and the availability of means that make them difficult to detect.

Russian second-generation combat helicopters are represented by the Ka-50 and Mi-28 machines, which surpass their foreign counterparts in a number of performance indicators.