MILITARY HELICOPTERS

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'Military helicopters' are helicopters owned and used by military forces. They can be found in a variety of roles in diffferent militaries of which the tactical airlift mission is the most common. Some militaries also possess attack helicopters and specialist helicopters for specific missions include but are not limited to battlefield reconnaissance, CSAR, casevac, airborne command post, anti-submarine warfare and minesweeping. Specialist helicopters are operated only by best funded and most capable militaries..

Contents

Types

Attack helicopters

Transport helicopters

Observation helicopters

Utility helicopters

Maritime helicopters

Equipment

Manufacturers

Use

External links

See also

Types

Military helicopters play an integral part in modern militaries' land, sea and air operations.

Attack helicopters

Attack helicopters are armed helicopters used in the anti tank and close air support roles. The first of the modern attack helicopters was the Vietnam era AH-1 Cobra, which pioneered the now classic format of pilot and weapons officer seated in tandem in a narrow fuselage, chin mounted guns and disposable armament of rockets and missiles mounted on stub wings. To enable to find and distinguish their targets modern attack helicopers are equipped with very capable sensors such as the Longbow mm radar system, this makes such attack helicopters useful reconnaissance assets.

Transport helicopters

Military transport helicopters are used in places where the use of conventional aircraft is impossible. For example the military transport helicopter is the primary transport asset of US Marines deploying from LHDs and LHA. The landing possibilities of helicopter are almost unlimited, and where it is impossible, for example densely packed jungle, troops may deploy by roping.

Transport helicopters are operated in three main classes, assault, medium and heavy. Assault helicopters are usually the smallest of the transport types, and designed to move an infantry section and their equipment. Helicopters in the assault role are generaly armed for self protection both in transit and for suppression of the landing zone. This armament may be in the form of door gunners, or the modification of the helicopter with stub wings and pylons for the carriage of missiles and rocket pods. For example the Sikorsky S-70 fitted with the ESSM (External Stores Support System) and the ''Hip E'' variant of the Mil Mi-8 can carry as much disposable armament as dedicated attack helicopters. The assault helicopter can be thought of as the modern successor to the military glider.
Not all militaries are able to operate a full range of transport helicopters so the medium transport type as the most useful compromise is probably the most common specialist transport type. Medium transport helicopters are generally capable of moving up to a platoon of infantry and are capable of being able to transport towed artillery or light vehicles either internally or as underslung roles. Examples include the unarmed versions of the Mil Mi-8, the Super Puma and the CH-46 Sea Knight.
Heavy lift helicopters are the most capable and expensive of the transport types, currently limited in service to the CH-53 Sea Stallion the related CH-53E Super Stallion, CH-47 Chinook, Mil Mi-26 and Aérospatiale Super Frelon. Capable of lifting up to 80 troops and moving small AFVs (usually as slung loads but also internally). These helicopters operate in the tactical transport role in much the same way as small fixed wing turboprop airlifters. The lower speed, range and increased fuel consumption of helicopters being more than compensated by their ability to operate anywhere.

Observation helicopters

For the most part helicopters in the Light Observation Helicopter class have replaced aircraft such as the Taylorcraft L-2 and Fieseler Fi 156, in the scout (reconnaissance) and observation (airborne Artillery observer/FAC) roles. Examples of the observation helicopter include the Aérospatiale Gazelle in UK service and the OH-58 Kiowa. At first such helicopters were usually unarmed for fear that pilots would be too aggressive and actively attack targets they should have been observing. However the recent trend is for the creation of the armed scout role, initally with gun and rocket pods, with modern light weight systems allowing the carriage of ATGWs and AAMs of the fire-and-forget variety.

Utility helicopters

The utility helicoter is a jack of all trades. The same basic helicopter can be equipped for different specialist roles for example the Eurocopter Dauphin and its variants exist as anti-tank, anti-submarine, search and rescue, transport and VIP versions. In a utility configuration the same helicopter can be rapidly configured to carry out any mission called upon, it may not do this job as well as a specialist helicopter but well enough to make a difference. The reason for utility helicopters over dedicated helicopters is that not all operators can maintain a full gamut of specialist helicopters, this reason for this may be

★ financial a nation or service cannot afford to acquire and maintain all the helicoters it needs.

★ technological e.g. the PZL W-3 Sokół is the only helicopter type manufactured by Poland and this one type has been adapted to fill all that nations helicopter needs.

★ operational e.g. LHDs can only carry a limited number of helicopters, so the ones they do carry have to do all possible jobs.

★ political e.g. the Air Force refuses to allow the Army to operate helicopters above a certain size and capability.

Maritime helicopters

Amongst the first practical uses of helicopters when the R4 and R5 became available to US and UK forces was deployment from Navy cruisers and battleships, at first supplementing and later replacing catapult launched observation aircraft. Another niche within the capability of the early helicopters was as guard aircraft operating from aircraft carriers tasked with the recovery of pilots who had been forced to ditch in the water.
As helicopter technology matured with increased payload and endurance anti-submarine warfare was added to its repertoire. Initially helicopters operated as weapons delivery systems, attacking with air launched torpedoes and depth charges based on information provided by its parent and other warships. In the 1960's turboshaft engines and miniaturisation allowed two development paths, smaller helicopters such as the Westland Wasp as capable as the earlier piston engined helicopters but small enough to operate from frigates, and helicopters such as the Sea King with integral dunking sonar and other sensors which allowed it to act autonomously of its parent vessel.
Today maritime helicopters still fall into smaller multi-role types and larger medium types. The smaller types such as the LAMPS and the Westland Lynx are designed to be operated from frigate and destroyer sized combatants. The usefulness of such helicopters and the desire to carry and operate two such helicopters from frigate and destroyer sized vessels has had an impact in the maximum size of such helicopters and a the minimum size of such ships. With increasing miniaturization, better engines and modern weapons, a convergence of abilities has occurred allowing the modern destroyer based multi-role helicopters to operate autonomously in the ASW, anti-shipping, transport and SAR and reconnaissance roles. In some navies the medium to large sized helicopters have been deleted in others they have been retained for operations from carriers and land bases, they form for example the main anti-submarine strength of the British, Spanish and Italian carrier air wings. When operating from shore bases medium and large size helicopters are used as antisubmarine pickets to protect against hostile submarines loitering outside military ports and harbours. The medium and larger sized maritime helicopters are retained because of their endurance and payload advantages over the smaller types. For example Lynx helicopters operating in the antishipping role can only carry the light weight short range Sea Skua, whilst Sea King helicopters operating in the antishipping role can carry the heavy weight Sea Eagle missiles.
Soviet maritime helicopters, operating from its cruisers, had the additional role as guidance and mid-course update aircraft to exploit the full range of its long range antishipping missiles.
All maritime helicopters are marinised for operation from ships, this includes enhanced protection against salt water corrosion, protection against ingestion of water (including that from hosing down with fresh water to get rid of salt water), the tuning of the electronics fitted be compatible with the complex electronic equipment of a warship and provision for forced ditching at sea.

Equipment

Most military helicopters are armoured to some extent however all equipment is limited to the installed power and lift capability and the limits installed equipment places on useful payload. The most extensive armour is placed around the pilots, engines, transmission and fuel tanks. Fuel lines, control cables and power to the tail rotor may also be shrouded by kevlar armour. The crew compartment may or may not be fully armoured a compromise being to give the passengers kevlar lined seats but to leave the caompartment for the most part unarmoured. Survivability is enhanced by redundancy and the placement of components to protect each other. For example the Blackhawk family of helicopters uses two engines and can continue to fly on only one, the engines are separated by the transmission and placed so that if attacked from any one flank, the engine on that flank acts to protect the transmission and the engine on the other side from damage.
Electronics such as communication radios, navigation aids ECM and IFF are common to all helicopters. Installed systems are tailored for mission specific helicopters, for example optical and IR cameras for scout helicopters, dunking sonar and search radar for anti-submarine helicopters, extra radio transcievers and computers for radio relay and command post helicopters etc.

Manufacturers

Major manufacturers include AgustaWestland, Bell Helicopter Textron, Eurocopter Group, Mil and Sikorsky Aircraft.

Use

★ Aerial warfare, primarily ground attack - attack helicopters and fighter planes often work together

★ Ground warfare

★ Air assault

★ Tactical Airlift

★ Combat Search and Rescue (military)

★ Search and Rescue (civil)

★ Anti-submarine warfare

External links

See also

★ List of active United States military helicopters