Do you need high-speed helicopters?
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Do you need high-speed helicopters?

Do you need high-speed helicopters?

"Frontline Fighters"

During the years of the Afghan war, the enemy shot down Soviet army aviation helicopters near 330. In both Chechen companies, the militants managed to destroy around 50 rotary-wing machines. Several helicopters are lost by the Russian armed forces group in Syria. The service of army aviation pilots is an honorable matter, but very dangerous. And if on the side of the crews of percussion "turntables" - speed, armor and maneuverability, then military transport boards (Mi-8, Mi-17) are much more vulnerable to fire from the ground. (12.2018 "RIA News").

Mi-8 / Mi-17 were great helicopters for their time, but they were outdated long ago and are to be written off, and Ka-32-10AG are ready to replace them and today our pilots must fly more maneuverable and high-speed helicopters!

"Why does the Russian military need a fast helicopter?"

The Russian service BBC asked the experts why a fast helicopter is needed and what difficulties its creators will face.

Evgeny Matveyev, air expert:

“If this is a combat helicopter, he will be less likely to lose. He can solve the tasks faster, especially when such a task arises suddenly. It can be used on the battlefield, landing troops - a lot of tasks. Therefore, it will be a good and necessary helicopter. It can also be used for civilian purposes — for example, to extinguish fires, provide first aid, and transport the wounded to the hospital.

This is an innovative development, because the main helicopter speeds are 250-300 kilometers per hour. Very rarely, it is larger. 400 kilometers per hour is a pretty high speed for a helicopter. "

Valery Gorbenko, former commander of the 4 th Air Force Air Force and Air Defense:

"The request for high-speed helicopters has always existed, but they were not developed before due to the lack of the necessary technologies for this. The trouble is that the fee for this speed will be very high. And really these helicopters can only afford the military. "

In the assessment of the “payment for this speed,” the respected Valery Gorbenko clearly went too far! Yes, the new one is more expensive, but more productive, and for a clearer understanding we compare the high-speed Ka-92 with the classic Mi-38: equivalent in terms of payload and fuel consumption per flight hour.

General Designer of KB "Kamov" S.V. Mikheev: “The Ka-92, with a takeoff weight of 16 tons, will be able to take on board 30 passengers and transport them over a distance of up to 1400 km. ... A helicopter capable of flying at least 600-1200 km without refueling is required to the oil platform of the Shtokman field, located at a distance of more than 1400 km from the nearest airfield in Murmansk "(Takeoff. 2009)

Director of the Mi-38 Helicopter Program, Georgiy Sinechshchikov: “The helicopter assumes the possibility of installing additional fuel tanks to increase the flight range with 20 passengers to 1300 km.” (27.06.2011 AviaPort.ru).

Let's assume that at a distance of 600 km. (there and back - 1200 km.) 60 passengers need to be transported. The Ka-92 will be able to take 30 passengers at this distance, and the Mi-38, respectively, will be able to take 20 passengers, i.e. to transport 60 people, the Ka-92 helicopter will need 2 flights, and the Mi-38 will need 3 flights!

The difference in the number of passengers carried by these helicopters is due to the fact that the lower-speed Mi-38 spends more time on the flight, so it spends more fuel:              

  • Mi-38 Vcr. = 285k / h, flight time = 4h 12m.
  • Ka-92 Vcr. = 420k / h, flight time = 2h 50m,

those. on 1200km. Mi-38 helicopter will need flight time on 1 hour 22 min. more than Ka-92 and with fuel consumption 880kg / hour - in addition 1200kg. instead of 10 passengers. This is the economic benefit of a high-speed helicopter, but plus - saves time for passengers! And where there is more speed - there is more and range.

For example, the An-24 turboprop aircraft was also more expensive than the IL-14 piston, but after its launch into the series, the IL-14 was modifying its life and retiring. With turbo-jets and turboprop aircraft, non-stop flights became possible even as far as Moscow-Khabarovsk and then Aeroflot flourished! By the way, the Tu-114 airliners, unlike the Boeing, on the route Moscow-Khabarovsk flew off their life without flying accidents!

But we will continue to get acquainted with the helicopter prices of interest to us:

"In Wikipedia, the Ka-92 cost was voiced = $ 30mln., While the Mi-38, which is much inferior to the Ka-92, in particular, in 1,5 time, is now offered to customers at a price of $ 40mln." (Edition of "Our Version". 11.04.2016).

It makes no sense to comment on this excerpt from the newspaper, because I think the cost of the Mi-38 is speculatively high:

"Gene. Designer "A.Samusenko added ... The price of helicopters with Canadian engines and TV7-117В engines will practically not differ". (27.06.2011. AirPort ru.).

It’s no secret that the price of American engines is significantly higher than domestic ones, and therefore I suspect “effective” managers of over-pricing Mi-38 with our engines.

It is worth remembering how the cheapness of the Mi-28 helicopter was once speculated in order to promote it in mass production. Then his supporters at the interruption assured that the Mi-28 is much cheaper than the Ka-52 and for launching the “poverty” series of our State “Alligator” is not a competitor for it:

"The representative of the Ministry of Defense also said that the choice between two equally worthy cars had to be made due to limited funds". (November 18 2008 of the year. "Night Hunter" won "Alligator" AviaPort.ru). And again the “Representative of the Ministry of Defense”!

About the cost difference told in "Kamov":

"Mi-28H and Ka-52 have the same engines, are made of the same materials and stand in the" bare "form the same. Otherwise, the tasks to be solved depend entirely on the additional equipment: navigation systems, aiming, radar, armament, etc. and the final cost, but not more than $ 20 million for each "- said the representative of the design office. (18.11.2008. AviaPort.ru).

On the Mi-28, both then and today there are obsolete weapons and equipment, in particular the Ataka anti-tank complex, due to which then the Mi-28 was cheaper.

According to the laws of the market, with the mass production of the product, its cost decreases, in particular, Ka-52 has decreased from $ 20 million to $ 16,1 million. (22.06.2015 voicesevas.ru / news /).

And vice versa in the cost center: “Unit cost ~ $ 18 million” (Wikipedia), i.e. "Night Hunter" is so much worse than the Ka-52, so much more expensive!

Hence the conclusion that the Mi-28N was adopted only through lobbying: “The head of the Center for Military Forecasting Anatoly Tsyganok believes that the reasons for choosing the Mi-28N are in the tacit lobbying of the defense complex structures. "Kamov" is a more significant modern machine ", - he told the correspondents of" Gazeta "and expressed doubt that the Ka-52 will be delivered to the army in the planned volumes" (November 18, 2008. AviaPort.ru).

Mi-28 lost to the Black Shark three times in a row and Syria showed that it is not effective in modern war: the primary task of the attack helicopter is to destroy tanks on the battlefield, but tanks were not destroyed from Mi-28Н helicopters because of their inability:

“In theory, a rocket hits a target at a range of up to five to six kilometers, but in practice, in order to accurately reach a guided missile, you have to come much closer. Therefore, the usual NAR is preferable. Yes, you cannot cope with such missiles with tanks, but for light armored vehicles, for buildings, for field fortifications of a volley of several unguided missiles is enough to destroy the target. But you gave a NAR volley, quickly turned away and went out of the fire. ”- explains the officer. (VPK.name 05.11.2015). This is the story of the commander of the Mi-24P, who is armed with the same "Attack" ATGM.

 The tanks in the Syrian war were destroyed from Ka-52 helicopters:

“The tasks we carry out,” says the crew commander, “are very important, but we must not forget about the main purpose of our attack helicopter. Destroying the manpower of terrorist groups, he assumes the function of attack aircraft. We can hit not only lightly armored targets, but also fortified objects, tanks. And we have the appropriate weapons to perform these tasks. Using anti-tank guided missiles, we are able to hit 900-mm armor. ” (newspaper Red Star, 27.10).

 It seems that the Government deliberately impedes the progress of our helicopter building, in order to later purchase high-speed helicopters in the United States, following the example of D. Medvedev, when he held the presidency:

- So what about the recent decision on the purchase of "Boeing"?

- A contract has already been signed when Dmitry Medvedev was in America, and everyone presented it as the highest achievement. At the same time, people were robbed of $ 4,2 billion and practically stopped the domestic aviation industry. In his reply, Barak Abama thanked the Russian President for the fact that the contract would allow him to save jobs in the Boeing company.

- But it will be new, not used aircraft?

- Yes, under the contract, Russia buys 65 new aircraft for Aeroflot, but could make 400 with this money. Ratio almost 1: 7 " (17 August 2010 year. AEX.RU).

Moving from the presidency to the premiere, Dmitry Anatolyevich repeated a good deed for the United States, giving them another $ 3,5 billion. And he did it without a shadow of embarrassment from the fact that our aviation industry was then choking on lack of money!

 Today, the government of D. Medvedev, by the “goodness of his soul”, gives Americans a head start over time for finalizing high-speed helicopters, postponing our projects for the distant future: “The project of a promising high-speed combat helicopter for the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defense will be implemented by the Mil design office. This was announced by Andrei Boginsky, Director General of the Russian Helicopters holding.

It seems very strange that the implementation of the revolutionary high-speed helicopters was entrusted to the design bureau, which didn’t release more than one new independent helicopter over 35, much less MODERN! Mi-38 is a helicopter that he inherited, and he built more than three decades, and even then he just entered the series.

So, by the will of the Putin-Medvedev government, we are slipping from the leading positions to the back of the world helicopter industry.     

General Designer S.V. Mikheev:

“I won’t reveal state secrets if I inform you that there are similar developments (high-speed, author’s note), at least in our design bureau. However, with the current level of funding for search and research work in Russian helicopter construction, our ideas seem destined to die under the cloth. In the history of Russia, this will not be the first time that, having a clear priority, we first lose the monopoly, then the leadership, and as a result we are forced to import Western technologies. ” (Red Star, 12 July 2006 of the year).

From here the news is worse than the other:

November 29 2018

The merger of the design offices of Kamov and Mil (both are part of the holding "Helicopters of Russia") will occur at the beginning of 2019. This Mil.Press Military said a source from the helicopter industry.

“The merger documents have already been prepared by the Directorate. They deal with the liquidation of the Kamov company through its incorporation into the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant”- said the source.

As a possible reason for the merger of design bureaus, the source cited cost optimization. The editors of Mil.Press Military sent a request to the Russian Helicopters holding with a request to comment on the situation.

About the merger of the two main design bureaus of helicopters say 2002 year. These plans in the industry were criticized primarily because of the possible reduction of competition between design schools. (November 29 2018. / Military.rf/).

It is really necessary to optimize expenses, but not in this place:

  1. Instead of the Mi-8, a more modern Ka-32-10AG should already be produced and then success and profit are guaranteed both in the domestic and international markets.
  2. To the government to finance not fake projects from the cost centers, but real Ka-92, Ka-102 and high-speed combat helicopters from the Kamov Design Bureau.
  3. General Designers Cost Centers ML Mil obliges, instead of the ruinous Mi-26, to develop modern heavy helicopters with the definition of specific dates and high quality.

Another option is to transfer them to a tuning workshop like a car, which, in my opinion, is closer to them today, especially after they converted the 2's local Mi-24 cabin into a single one. But after all, the combat helicopter will again have to return their branded two-seater and then everything will be back to normal, and then D. Medvedev will fly to the United States to purchase high-speed Raider S-97 for our air forces from the manufacturer Sikorsky similar to the Mi-24.

If in the distant Soviet times I.V. Stalin gathered general designers in the Kremlin, where they discussed pressing problems in aircraft construction and set tasks for aircraft, and the timing of their implementation, then, in all likelihood, for President V.V. Putin is "not a tsarist business" and he completely and completely transferred state-important matters for the development of the aviation industry and, in particular, for helicopter construction, to the Prime Minister D.A. Medvedev. Dmitry Anatolyevich did not remain in debt and “... was the first to test an Italian helicopter. The prime minister started flying to the residence in a foreign car Agusta (Izvestia newspaper Published: 11.03.2013). But our Ka-62, which is not inferior to "Agusta" in terms of flight characteristics and comfort, but safer and much cheaper - the Kremlin government is constantly shifting the launch dates for the series under various pretexts. For the screwdriver assembly of the expensive Italian Agusta, the “poor” government “out of nowhere” found money to build an entire plant from scratch, but there is always “no” money for outstanding Kamov helicopters, because they are Russian!

By the way, about the “shortage” of money in the state treasury once on the forum “Open Studio” by V.V. Zhirinovsky very clearly marked: “We are the richest country. We have a huge amount of money ”(24.09. 2010). Hence the conclusion that the Kremlin government is not “optimizing” expenses, but is liquidating the unique, best helicopter in the world, the Kamov Design Bureau!

Vitaly Belyaev, specially for Avia.pro

 

"For the Motherland, the greatest danger is not in the external road, but in its own idiots ..." liberals and shitcrats. A.V. Suvorov.
There are no worse and meaner enemies than traitors at the head of the state ...

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