Recently, photos of China's new armed helicopter began to circulate on the Internet, which is also another new platform in addition to the Z-20 in recent years. For this reason, this gunship has attracted much attention.
Given that the picture has spread on the Internet, I dare to say a few words without additional information.
As we can see from the existing pictures, this new helicopter uses the power, transmission, and rotor system of the Z-20, so its weight should be comparable to that of the Z-20, that is, 10 tons. Compared with the 5-ton class of the Z-10, this new armed helicopter undoubtedly has better power, larger payload, and more space, which means more equipment, more armor and stronger structure, more weapon loads, and possibly better maneuverability, all of which are long-criticized problems for the lightweight Z-10 and Z-19. In terms of platform performance, in addition to the indescribable appearance, the other performance of this gunship will undoubtedly be much better.
From the perspective of technical maturity, when the Z-20 has been mass-produced, the research and development progress of this helicopter with comparable power will be relatively fast, and it may also be possible to use the Z-20 production line to achieve rapid finalization and mass production. Therefore, the new heavy armed helicopter does not use other advanced configurations, and should start from the perspective of rapid production, which is also in line with the current combat readiness needs.
However, many people have questioned whether helicopter gunships are still useful in the era of drones, and the helicopters that Russia has fought in Ukraine have suffered heavy losses, and many people have begun to doubt the effectiveness of helicopter gunships.
It should be said that helicopter gunships are still useful in the context of a complete system. If the Russian army's precision strike capability on February 24, 2022 is further improved, the adventurous operation of the Russian Airborne Forces may become a classic example. Such deliveries cannot be done with drones, and helicopter gunships for cover and support missions are still very important.
Similarly, even from the actual point of view of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, helicopter gunships still play an important role in combating enemy armored clusters, providing air cover and fire support to ground forces. The Ka-52's "Vortex" anti-tank missile showed great power in June 2023 and played an important role in the assault to dismantle the elite armored cluster of the Ukrainian army.
And what many overlook is that helicopter gunships themselves inevitably suffer serious losses in a large-scale war, as is the case with main battle tanks. The United States lost 5,607 helicopters in Vietnam that year, including 303 AH-1Gs. At present, the scale of losses of Russian helicopter gunships approaching 50 is actually an acceptable level, not so special.
Russia, or most of the world's armed helicopters, have not fully adapted to the needs of information-based operations, but if they are information-based and intelligently upgraded, they may have cross-generational advantages. Outside the effective range of air defense missiles, it is entirely possible to use information means to form a network to guide one's own unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and cruise missiles to strike at targets behind the battle line, or to carry out long-distance strikes against enemy targets under the guidance of one's own forward unmanned aerial vehicles. Helicopter gunships can form a command-strike node on their own, activating the entire combat system.
The armed forces will still need "flying artillery" that occupies "the height of a tree," and the key depends on how they are combined and how they are used.
So does this new heavy helicopter gunship have relevant equipment? We don't know at the moment, but from the dense antenna at the tail, the answer may have been given.