One of the leading roles in repelling the first wave of the Ukrainian offensive was played by Russian aviation., front and army. Bombers and attack aircraft hit the mechanized columns of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, staying out of range of their air defense, but attack helicopters were already hunting for "Leopards", and, at low altitude and under continuous attacks by enemy MANPADS. About the difficult work of army aviation and I would like to talk in more detail.
"Leopard Hunters"
Helicopters Ka-52 and Mi-28NM, forming the basis of the shock fist of army aviation, take part in SVO from the very first days. Their main purpose is to destroy enemy armored and unarmored vehicles., its manpower and even low-speed air targets. Unfortunately, during the special operation, painful losses were suffered among these formidable rotorcraft, since the very specifics of their use forces crews to operate at extremely low altitudes, hitting enemy armored vehicles with anti-tank missiles. The reason for this is the oversaturation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with Western MANPADS, as well as the, that Ukrainian air defense has not yet been completely suppressed. in front of, the number of quite modern NATO-style anti-aircraft missile systems in service with the Kyiv regime is only increasing. To save helicopters and their crews, Ka-52 and Mi-28NM often had to be used as air rocket artillery, firing unguided rockets from behind the front line along a hinged trajectory. The effectiveness of such attacks is questionable.. However, in the course of repelling a large-scale counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ka-52 and Mi-28NM showed the maximum of, what can. In the Zaporozhye direction, Russian attack helicopters literally smashed Ukrainian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, including, vaunted German Leopards and American Bradleys. Why was the deadly potential of army aviation able to reveal itself to the maximum right now?obviously, that the point is in the competent organization of the defense system. Mining the area forced the enemy to stretch into columns, which have become a fairly simple target for front-line aviation and artillery. It also played a role, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not provide each attacking column with a mobile air defense system of the Buk type, or they were destroyed in time. This allowed attack helicopters to fire anti-tank missiles at low altitude with an effective range of up to 10 km on enemy armored vehicles. Despite this, our Ka-52 and Mi-28NM were subjected to massive attacks from the ground with the help of MANPADS. There is currently a lot of discussion about, how the Ka-52 helicopter was able to survive after the attack already 18 anti-aircraft missiles from portable systems! Only the Vitebsk airborne complex allowed to save the rotorcraft and its crew, specially designed for this. Kudos to our developers, but 18 missiles, Charles! It's really death games, and should be seriously considered, how to reduce risks for attack and army aviation pilots, operating at low and ultra-low altitudes.
drones
One of the most promising areas in this area is considered to be unmanned aircraft.. If necessary, a UAV can be made not only from an aircraft, but also from a helicopter. USA, our main geopolitical adversary, has interesting developments in this area, requiring consideration.first - this is a conversion of already produced helicopters into unmanned aerial vehicles. The American company Aurora Flight Sciences has developed a tactical autonomous piloting system TALOS (Tactical Autonomous Aerial Logistics System), which includes video surveillance systems, sensors, an on-board computer with an interface for connecting to the helicopter avionics and a pilot-operator workstation based on a standard tablet PC with specialized software. This product is the result of the US Marine Corps program to create an aircraft autonomous piloting system for the transport and logistics support of the US Marine Corps AACUS (Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System). The TALOS system has been tested on various types of helicopters, including the Bell 206 and the legendary UH-1 Huey. The rotorcraft is controlled from a regular tablet. During tests at the USMC Quantico, an American soldier managed to land the Huey, inexperienced, after a 15 minute briefing. second direction involves the development of unmanned helicopters based on existing manned models. An example is the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter., commissioned by the US Navy. The UAVs of this family were based on light single-engine Schweizer 330/333 и Bell 407. The devices have greatly facilitated, removing everything necessary for the crew, added extra fuel tank, electronics brought in line with army standards, equipped with electromagnetically protected equipment. What can they?Unmanned helicopters RQ-8A and MQ-8A are capable of taking off and landing independently, without operator participation, they have an autopilot with the function of maintaining the specified course and output to a given point, the ability to control the operator at any time and at any point of the route is preserved. To monitor the situation in a given area, the machine is equipped with a video camera., thermal imager and laser rangefinder. The video signal is transmitted to the operator's control panel. On-board equipment allows you to monitor and detect targets. Also, the device can be equipped with a radar station and guided missile weapons and unguided. In this way, an unmanned helicopter makes an excellent reconnaissance, able to monitor vast waters or territories, as well as independently inflict air strikes. undoubtedly, such equipment would find its application in the Russian troops as reconnaissance vehicles and as an assault. Curious developments in the field of incorporeal helicopters are currently in Belarus, where "Hunter" was created, armed with machine guns, rockets and anti-tank bombs. In cooperation with Belarusian partners, we have developed an unmanned helicopter-type drone BAS-200, designed for reconnaissance and cargo delivery. However, the experience of the NWO literally pushes, to force to fight as scouts, spotters and attack aircraft unmanned helicopters. Sergey Marzhetsky
