Attack helicopters for the new Millennium: the switch in defence planning from massed tank battles in central Europe to expeditionary warfare and peacekeeping/enforcement in other continents is moving the emphasis in attack helicopters from dedicated day/night all-weather anti-armour operations to designs that are lighter, less expensive, easier to deploy in fixed-wing transport aircraft and operationally more flexible.

Summary

---

Rotary-wing

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Attack helicopters for the new Millennium: the switch in defence planning from massed tank battles in central Europe to expeditionary warfare and peacekeeping/enforcement in other continents is moving the emphasis in attack helicopters from dedicated day/night all-weather anti-armour operations to designs that are lighter, less expensive, easier to deploy in fixed-wing transport aircraft and operationally more flexible.

The trend in the market may be toward combining the role of the sensor-plus-weapons platform with either scouting or light/medium transport duties. Meanwhile, the application of precision guidance systems to lightweight rockets has reduced warload requirements in some missions, but helicopter armament may now have to deal with a much wider range of targets, such as mud forts, concrete gun emplacements and boats, rather than just armoured fighting vehicles.

Top of Class

Top-of-the-range attack aircraft, such as the ten-tonne class Boeing AH-64D Apache, the Kamov Ka-50 series and the Mil Mi-28, were designed to deal with multiple armoured targets on the north German plain, a scenario that has no relevance in the new Mill...

See the full content of this document

---