Recently, a video about the suspected first flight of the mainland's new heavy armed helicopter has set off a wave of heated discussions on the Internet. In the video, the nose part of the gunship helicopter reminds people of the famous Mi-28 of the Russian army at a glance, and the lines and structure of the entire fuselage, especially from the bottom perspective, are exactly the same as the Apache helicopter in service in the US military, which makes people marvel at the subtlety of its design.
However, the appearance of this video also raises a question worth pondering: in the Z-10 and Z-19 helicopter gunships have been put into service on a large scale, and UAV technology is developing rapidly, is it necessary for us to continue to develop and produce new heavy gunships?
With the rapid changes in the modern battlefield environment, new helicopter gunships may need to be equipped with more advanced sensors, communication systems, weapon systems, and defense technologies to maintain operational superiority, and new helicopters may be designed to perform a variety of tasks, such as attacking ground targets, air support, special operations force support, etc., which requires higher performance and flexibility.
The launch of any new aircraft is not something that can be done overnight, it must go through a rigorous theoretical validation and development process. In fact, during last year's National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, Wu Ximing, an expert in the aviation industry, revealed in a media interview that a new model of aircraft is under development, and hinted that it will soon be available to the public. Engineer Wu was very cautious in his wording, and instead of using the term "new generation", he chose the expression "new model". This precise expression clearly sends a message to the outside world: the upcoming new model will remain within the same generation as the mainland's current helicopter products, the familiar fourth-generation helicopter family.
At that time, some observers speculated that the so-called new model was very likely to be a heavy armed helicopter improved on the basis of the Z-20, aiming to strengthen our army's gap in the field of heavy armed helicopters. Today, most of these speculations seem to be confirmed. For aviation enthusiasts, it may be a bit disappointing to see this video, as they are looking forward to the debut of a next-generation gunship with a new design, rather than just an upgraded version of an existing design.
On the modern battlefield, low detectability, electronic warfare capabilities, and survivability are key. Newer helicopters may need to have greater stealth and electronic countermeasures capabilities to improve survival rates, and in some combat environments, heavy gunships can carry more weapons and fuel, providing longer stays on the battlefield, which are essential for completing complex and sustained missions.
In our vision for future gunships, we expect them to be able to adopt the current trend of high-speed design concepts, such as the use of coaxial counter-rotor or tiltrotor technology. However, these ideas do not appear to be feasible at the moment, at least in the short term. This is mainly because there is still a significant gap between the mainland's aviation industry base, especially in the field of helicopter research and development, compared with the United States, Russia and other Western developed countries, and it can even be said that there is a generation gap.
Continental has relatively little early technical accumulation and engineering experience in this field, especially in the development and practical application of coaxial counter-rotor and tiltrotor technology. Therefore, it is not only unrealistic to launch a similar design scheme in such a tight time, but also does not conform to the objective laws and development trends of weapons and equipment research and development.
The main feature of the coaxial anti-propeller technology is that the helicopter is equipped with two sets of rotors, one forward and one reversed, which balance the torque generated by the two rotors in the same course of flight. This structure can not only achieve course maneuvering by generating unbalanced torque through the total moment difference between the upper and lower rotors, but also in helicopter flight, the coaxial twin rotors are both lift surfaces and control surfaces for longitudinal and longitudinal and heading.
The advantage of coaxial anti-propeller technology is its high power utilization, for example, data on the Ka-50 helicopter shows that its lift force is 12% greater than that of a helicopter with the same rotor diameter. At the same time, due to the design without a small tail rotor, the fuselage structure is more compact and the hangar area occupied can be reduced, which is especially important for carrier-based helicopters.
In the pursuit of short-term strategic goals, the development of new models based on existing mature equipment is not only a highly effective strategy, but in the current situation it seems to be the only viable option, and throughout the world, countries are following a similar path on the path of research and development of military equipment. Taking the United States as an example, its AH-1 helicopter gunship was improved and developed on the basis of the UH-1 helicopter. Similarly, Russia's famous Mi-28 helicopter gunship also stems from the deep technical accumulation of its earlier model, the Miba. On the mainland, the design of the J-20 fighter also fully draws on the mature and robust concept of repressive layout, and all these successful cases provide us with valuable experience.
Of course, with the mainland's current technology accumulation and strength in the field of aviation industry, we have reason to believe that China's new generation of transport and armed helicopters will reach the world-class design level in the future, and the realization of this goal will require time precipitation and continuous technological breakthroughs. We believe that with the passage of time, the mainland's aviation industry will continue to move towards new peaks and contribute more to the country's strategic goals and national defense security.
Since we are based on the Z-20, a 10-ton medium-sized general aviation platform, when it is converted into a gunship, its positioning will undoubtedly be upgraded to the heavy category. We look at international heavy gunships, such as the Apache and Mi-28, which also happen to be in this tonnage class. Compared with the medium-sized helicopter gunship, the armor protection capability and the ability to carry weapons have been significantly improved, which is undoubtedly a qualitative leap.
Looking back at our direct series of armed helicopters, its shortcomings lie in these two aspects, which is also the main reason why it has been criticized by the outside world. Although the later Z-10M1 version has enhanced its protection capabilities and engine power to a certain extent, due to the design limitations of its original platform, its potential for further excavation has been significantly restricted, and we have reason to believe that the new armed helicopter improved on the basis of the Z-20 will achieve a major breakthrough in these two aspects, thereby filling our gap in the field of heavy armed helicopters and contributing new strength to the cause of national security.