The latest military helicopters and helicopters of the future. “Daring” is preparing to replace “Raider.” The old horse doesn't spoil the furrows

Well-known military experts told PolitExpert about the combat missions that a high-speed attack helicopter, the design of which is currently being discussed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, can perform.

Representative of the Russian Helicopters holding company Andrei Boginsky said that three high-speed projects will be presented to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation by the end of November 2018. attack helicopter with various design solutions, TASS reports. According to Boginsky, the first option should be made in the traditional version with one main rotor and one tail rotor. The second option involves combining two propellers, as in the Ka-52 Alligator, only with additional thrusters in the tail. The third is a helicopter with a combined power plant and propellers on the sides.

Military expert, ex-chief of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Russian Federation Sergei Khatylev told PolitExpert that the program to create such a high-speed rotorcraft was written quite a long time ago. It was reported that new helicopter should be developed by 2020, but such a project initially did not receive funding because industry representatives did not support it.

Khatylev said that one of the main goals for high-speed helicopters is the elimination of air targets.

In addition to the main tasks of providing air support to ground forces, a modern helicopter must effectively destroy even small UAVs. Moreover, tracking and hitting targets on the ground and in the air must be carried out simultaneously, using technologically advanced automated guidance and target designation systems, Khatylev said.

Military expert of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Alexey Leonkov, in turn, said that rotorcraft perform a fairly wide range of combat missions.

But when creating such a helicopter, there are certain tasks that affect its design features, because, unlike an airplane, it flies with the help of rotating blades and a propeller. And we need to consider the design of this propeller so that the helicopter is controllable. The Ministry of Defense needs a fast car, the so-called army aviation. Previously, this was what helicopters were called. They always accompanied the ground forces, providing air cover and performing a number of tasks. For example, for evacuation, support, in some cases reconnaissance, combating enemy armored vehicles and naval aviation. When we talk about new helicopters, faster machines are now required. There are situations when a lightning-fast solution is required.

In response to a question about the option that the Ministry of Defense can choose, Leonkov said that the main combat missions for such technology.

Exist specifications, which are unknown to me. When this kind of sampling is carried out, usually the Ministry of Defense develops the so-called technical requirements for the tasks that the combat helicopter must perform. Representatives of the department are considering the characteristics of the machine, and if the project meets these requirements, then a technical specification will appear, on the basis of which this helicopter will be created. Therefore, there are three concepts for creating a high-speed helicopter that should maintain speeds of over 400 km/h. It should be fast enough.

According to the expert, helicopters have fairly extensive combat capabilities, which give them advantages over attack aircraft.

It takes a long time to raise fighters, but if there is, for example, a helicopter pad nearby, and if there are high-speed rotorcraft, then you can react quite quickly. In addition, helicopters are capable of maneuvers that aircraft cannot. Helicopters can hover in the air, conduct aggressive fire, move in any direction, namely to where the events are taking place. fighting and at the same time lead fire support. All this makes helicopters a very interesting tool.

To reach the modern heights of technical excellence, Russian helicopters have come a long way. Military rotorcraft appeared first, then it was the turn of civilian aircraft.

For a long time The only means of flight remained the airplane. Its flight principle had a serious drawback - the need to constantly move to stay in the air. In addition, he needed a runway. This limited the scope of application of such devices. There was often a need for devices that could take off and land vertically, and their ability to fly would not depend on the speed of movement. After much research and experimentation, a helicopter filled this niche.

The history of helicopters

People have dreamed of flying since ancient times. The use of the principles on the basis of which rotorcraft now fly was thought about back in ancient China. Europe also did not stand aside. Among the drawings discovered after the death of Leonardo da Vinci, images of devices with the resemblance of blades were found.

In Russia, Mikhail Lomonosov was designing a vertical take-off propeller mechanism, which he intended to use for meteorological observations.

For the first time in history, a vertical takeoff was performed in France by the Breguet brothers.

Under the leadership of Professor Charles Richet, they created a device that rose half a meter above the ground.

A major breakthrough in the development of helicopters occurred in 1911, when Russian engineer Boris Yuryev designed a swashplate that controls the tilt of the helicopter rotor axis. This solved the problem of obtaining horizontal speed. Subsequently, many researchers in Argentina, France, Italy and other countries began to study such devices.

In the USSR, the first flight on a rotorcraft was made by Alexey Cheremukhin in 1932. He climbed to a height of 605 meters and set a world record. Three years later, Louis Breguet was able to reach speeds above 100 km/h. After this, all doubts about the feasibility of developing helicopter manufacturing, primarily in military field.

Development of helicopter manufacturing in the USSR and the USA

American helicopters were started by Russian engineer Igor Sikorsky. In the USSR, he was involved in the development of airplanes, and after moving to the USA he founded a company creating helicopters. In 1939, the first VS-300 device was created, designed according to the classic single-rotor Yuryev design.

During the first demonstration flights, the designer himself controlled his creation. In 1942, the VS-316 model, developed by order of the US government, appeared. It was used mainly for communications and rescue operations.

The Sikorsky company continued to improve its devices, and in 1946 an autopilot appeared for the first time in the S-51 model.

In the 1930s, helicopter manufacturing was not given enough attention in the Soviet Union. In 1940, Boris Yuryev was allowed to create design department, but the war began, and they had to forget about helicopters. After the end of the war, rotary-wing aircraft began to spread throughout the world.

In the USSR, two design bureaus were created, headed by Mikhail Mil and Nikolai Kamov. They used a single-screw and coaxial design in their designs, respectively. By the end of the 1940s, several models were submitted to the competition. The winner was the Mi-1 device produced by KB Mil.

Prospects for the development of combat helicopters

The general vector of development of rotary-wing aircraft is the desire to create an apparatus that combines positive sides helicopters with the speed characteristics of airplanes. First of all, combat helicopters should receive such capabilities. In many countries, including Russia and the USA, there are programs to develop helicopters of the future.

A promising option for using a pusher screw is implemented in American project S-97 Raider. It is expected that it will be able to reach speeds of up to 450 km/h. Its important advantage will be the ability to fly at high altitudes.

A revolutionary jet helicopter project (Ka-90) is being developed in Russia. Its take-off, landing and initial acceleration should take place according to the helicopter principle.

For getting high speed the jet engine will turn on, accelerating the device to 800 km/h.

The rapid development of technology gives more and more autonomy to both individual subsystems and entire units. Many functions that helicopters currently perform will be taken over in the future. unmanned vehicles.

Video

Moving troops is no easy task, and things get even more difficult when you have to move by air. The US Army and NASA are developing new park helicopters to perform combat missions in the future. Some models developed in the early 60s are still in use, but technology has advanced significantly since then. And, as we can see in these art images, the next generation of helicopters will be very different from the current one.

Latest magazine Army Technology looks at what new helicopters could be. In August, the Pentagon ordered two prototypes from Sikorsky-Boeing and Bell Helicopter.

Sikorsky's SB-1 Defiant design features a pushrod air propeller, which will allow the helicopter to take off faster than aircraft with rotors.

Sikorsky-Boeng SB-1 Concept

Bell Helicopter's V-280 Valor looks like a lighter version of the V-22 Osprey, but it has an estimated speed of 500 km/h and will be able to carry half as many troops as the V-22. It is planned in three versions - a version for transporting people or equipment, a medical model for evacuation and a combat helicopter equipped with missiles.

V-280 Valor Concept

It is planned that it will be able to transport a squad of 12 soldiers plus 4 crew members, fly at an altitude of more than 2000 meters at high temperatures and cover a distance of 3800 kilometers without refueling. Ned Chase, the program director, says it's a little cheaper and faster to develop a combined aircraft instead of several separate versions. But other merged projects with big amount requirements show that this is not always the case.

The Kamov company is celebrating the 110th anniversary of the first helicopter flight in the world with new ideas for improving helicopters, without which life in modern society impossible to imagine. The general designer of Kamov OJSC, Sergei Mikheev, spoke in an interview with the website of the Zvezda TV channel about what the design of helicopters of the future will be, what speed they will be able to develop, what tasks they will perform and in what military operations they will be used.- Looking to the future, what will happen to combat helicopters? How will they change in 30 years?-50 years?- The development of combat helicopters will, of course, be the basis for the re-equipment of modern armed forces, since the helicopter in its capacity today represents a unique opportunity to act quickly, covertly and effectively. In this regard, military helicopters have an exceptionally good future. What will happen fundamentally? Of course, there will be a reduction in crew and much greater automation of modes.

These will be attack helicopters that are capable of maneuvering and flying at very high speeds. Perhaps twice as much as is being done now.

The development of combat vehicles will be carried out in many directions, including the improvement of equipment that helps carry out both flight mode and combat work.- What weapons will helicopters of the future be able to carry?- The means of destruction today are extremely diverse. They are being improved and created on new physical principles. Of course, all this will be reflected not only in helicopter manufacturing, but also on the battlefield in general. The helicopter, as a perfect machine, will use all this. It will be one perfect complex, managed by a minimum number of people.
- Will it still be controlled by a person or, in the future, by a robot?- Of course, modern advances in process automation will also be reflected in helicopter manufacturing. The most dangerous operating modes will be carried out most automatically aircraft. Today this is mainly reconnaissance, but in the future it will also combat use. Unmanned helicopters will firmly take their place. However, there are regimes and conditions in which a person is necessary. Therefore, the number of crew will be reduced.
Once upon a time, many years ago, they made a single-seat Ka-50 combat helicopter, which Air Chief Marshal Pavel Stepanovich Kutakhov really liked. Then we installed the complex developed for the Su-25 aircraft, which also has one crew member, on a helicopter. The result was the Ka-50 - a single-seat combat helicopter with a complex from the Su-25 aircraft. We had no doubt then that this vehicle was capable of fighting and fighting tanks.

The combat process will remain with the person. In this area, it is necessary to wisely distinguish between what the pilot does and what the machine gun helps him do. After all, the pilot is in charge of a helicopter.

Therefore, improvement will concern, first of all, trivial moments or moments that increase combat effectiveness - they will be given to automation. And the decision, of course, will be up to the person. What tasks will helicopters of the future be able to perform?- As for the tasks that helicopters will perform, to answer this question we need to look back. The Ka-27 helicopter was once developed for the Navy in three modifications: anti-submarine, search and rescue, and military transport.
Already today, when mass production completed a long time ago, we see up to eight positions, and they have already been introduced into the army. However, even this does not end the list of combat vehicles that are required today. Something else is important. We must strive to ensure that this is a unified helicopter capable of performing various tasks. This is a difficult, capacious, but necessary task for any design bureau.
Kamov, in particular, having in mind the number of vehicles that we make for the Navy, understands this very well. Our designers are working to ensure that this is a universal machine capable of mass production.

I believe that any military vehicle eventually becomes a civilian one. For example, the Mi-8 helicopter was born as a military helicopter, but for many years it became an indispensable transport helicopter, which is very widely exported. This is the fate of any machine that seriously aims at long life. Sooner or later she must become a civilian. This in many cases expands production, so any military vehicle must be technologically advanced and cheap.

- Will future helicopter designs change?- The design will be completely different. In my mind, this is the design of a high-speed vehicle: a sleek outline, placement of weapons inside the body, an exceptionally aerodynamically perfect vehicle, which is also necessary for another quality - less visibility.

A high-speed helicopter will have minimal harmful drag. It can be compared to an arrow, because that is what perfection is. His image will reduce harmful drag to a minimum, and he will be able to reach speeds of 500-600 km/h.

As the heir to the Kamov company, as a designer who has been continuing the work of Nikolai Ilyich Kamov for 50 years, I believe that this will be a coaxial helicopter.
I am deeply convinced that helicopter combat aviation, which originated less than 100 years ago, will take a leading position in contacts and combat operations near the front line. Including the speed of reaction to enemy actions. Therefore today combat aviation can be based on unprepared sites. The properties of the helicopter allow her to do this. But in all other respects, it must increase its speed, maneuverability, and increase its combat effectiveness.

The Sikorsky Aircraft and Boeing companies recently showed a video of a conceptual view of a combat helicopter that will become the basis of propeller-driven aircraft American army, writes the authoritative military-technical magazine janes.com.
Screenshot from the video “Sikorsky / Boeing”.

After many years of fighting Islamists in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has come to the conclusion that the helicopter fleet of the US armed forces is gradually becoming obsolete and running out of resources. In combat conditions, vehicles flew five times more often than in Peaceful time, worked in critical modes, received damage, fell to the ground due to damage from enemy fire and technical problems. In this regard, back in 2009, they began a program for a “future vertical take-off machine” - "Future Vertical Lift" (FVL), within which they must create a helicopter using latest technologies and materials. It is planned that new car will have a longer range, the ability to carry a larger load, will be more maneuverable, reliable and convenient for the crew and repairmen.

Video from the account of Lockheed Martin, owner of the Sikorsky company.

At the same time, the FVL will become a “family” platform for creating vehicles for various purposes, and therefore will replace the majority of helicopters of the US Ground Forces - attack, transport, and reconnaissance. FVL platforms will be produced in “medium” and “heavy” versions. The former will replace Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, and the latter will replace Chinook helicopters. Sikorsky and Boeing have teamed up to fly the Sb-1 Defiant helicopter, a demonstrator of a middleweight version of the helicopter. The published video demonstrates future view this particular vehicle in shock and military transport versions.
Transparency options “Defiant”.

The competitor of the Sikorsky and Boeing helicopters in the fight for a large-scale military order is the V-280 Valor from Bell. The company offers a tiltrotor - that is, a machine with rotary propellers that can be used both as a propeller-driven aircraft and as a helicopter. Thus, the company plans to create universal car, which can rise without a take-off run, and then move at a speed so far unattainable for helicopters and over an incredible distance. The tiltrotor will have a speed of up to 560 km/h and a flight range of up to 3,900 km. In addition, the tiltrotor, like the Defiant, will have the ability to refuel in the air. Crew transport vehicle will consist of 4 people, including 2 pilots and 2 combat systems operators, and the vehicle will also be able to carry 14 landing troops. In addition to the transport version, Bell is also developing an impact version of the V-280 Valor and has already attracted interest from not only Ground troops USA, but also the Corps Marine Corps. The first prototypes of the V-280 Valor and Sb-1 Defiant are expected to appear this year, after which military personnel and engineers will begin extensive testing to determine the most effective design.