If you liked this article, please manually click "Follow" on the top right. Thank you for your support and encouragement, and hope to bring you a comfortable reading experience.
Recently, photos of China's first heavy armed helicopter "Wuzhi 21" have been circulating on the Internet, causing heated discussions among military fans.
Some people say that this marks that the continental helicopter gunship has finally made up for the last shortcoming.
But there are also those who say that heavy helicopter gunships are long outdated.
What exactly is the factual situation?
Make up for the last shortcoming
Heavy helicopter gunships have always been sought after by countries.
Compared with light and medium-sized armed helicopters, its advantages are indeed obvious.
It has a larger payload, can carry more missiles, and is equipped with a larger caliber cannon.
If the enemy lacks anti-aircraft fire, then a heavy helicopter gunship can take out a tank company and can be called the nemesis of tank armored vehicles.
It can not only provide ground fire support, but also escort transport helicopters, and the transportation efficiency is also better.
Due to the heavy helicopter gunship's heavy weight and stronger armor protection, it has better battlefield survivability.
Correspondingly, the greater the weight, the less maneuverable it will suffer.
Its flight and handling performance directly determine its attack and evasion speed.
It is even more difficult to develop.
Only two countries in the world, the United States and Russia, have this kind of manufacturing capacity.
Historically, the first helicopter gunships appeared in the American-Vietnamese War.
At that time, in order to escort transport helicopters, the United States specially developed the AH-1G Cobra series of armed helicopters.
In the seventies and eighties, countries began to compete for research and development.
China, which faced the threat of Soviet armored pressure, was especially needed.
However, not to mention the armed helicopter, even the general-purpose helicopter we were not able to build at that time, and the road of helicopter imitation development began with the introduction of the French SA.356N/N1 "Dolphin" helicopter.
On this basis, we gradually developed the Z-9 transport helicopter, and then improved it to give birth to the Z-9G/W series of armed helicopters.
However, they are not strictly considered specialized helicopter gunships.
Although it solves the shortcomings of our lack of anti-tank firepower, it is far worse than that of specialized gunships in terms of survivability, firepower, and mobility.
If they are placed on the island landing operation, they will carry eight anti-tank missiles, and they will not even be able to go back and forth in the Taiwan Strait, and they will have to build a dock landing ship for them to carry out their mission.
It was not until 1995 that China started the development of the Z-10 with the technical support of Russia, and it took more than ten years of twists and turns to start trial production.
This is the mainland's first dedicated gunship, but it is only a 7-ton medium-sized gunship.
Although the range is guaranteed, the load and protection capacity are not strong enough.
For a long time, China has been able to build nuclear weapons and heavy fighter jets, but it has been unable to build heavy helicopter gunships, which has become a huge regret in the hearts of the Chinese people.
However, with the birth of the Z-20 transport helicopter, there was hope.
Z-20 Continental Helicopter Industry Development Milestone.
Its weight exceeded 10 tons, and the maximum power of the turboshaft 10 engine reached 1400 thousand ~ 1500 kilowatts.
This shows that China already has the technology to manufacture heavy helicopter gunships.
Recently, a photo of a special armed helicopter with a Z-20 has circulated on the Internet, causing excitement and heated discussions among military fans.
People call it "Wuzhi 21".
The American "Power" website even speculates that it will be in service in two or three years.
Then, at that time, the mainland will make up for the last shortcoming of the armed helicopters.
However, there are also those who disagree, arguing that heavy helicopter gunships are outdated.
From the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, you can see how chicken the heavy helicopter gunship is.
Heavy Takeshi's disillusionment
In fact, as soon as the Russian-Ukrainian war began, Russia deployed dozens of heavy helicopter gunships on its borders.
Including Mi-24, Ka-52, Mi-28.
Because of this, many military fans expect these weapons to show their strength, but their performance is surprising.
In two months, half of it was tracked down by the "Stinger" anti-aircraft missile.
And this is when the Ukrainian medium and long-range air defense systems were destroyed in the early stage.
In the later battles, the heavy helicopter gunship did not have much presence, let alone the scene of its slaughter.
In fact, heavy helicopter gunships have never been a powerful weapon of mass destruction, but people's expectations for it have always been too high, so disillusioned.
Heavy helicopter gunships, although they have great firepower, have obvious shortcomings.
Relatively speaking, it is slow, thinly armored, and often flies or hovers at low altitudes, making it difficult to ensure survival safety.
Not to mention that the Stinger anti-aircraft missile can easily shoot down the heavy helicopter gunship of the Soviet army, as long as the flight is low enough, it is more than enough for Ukraine to deal with it with heavy machine guns.
You see, in the Soviet war in Afghanistan in 1979, the Mi-24 was a single-plane operation at the beginning, and it was beaten down a lot by the guerrillas, so it was changed to a two-plane formation.
Even a massive action with a salvo of rockets, a sweep of machine guns.
However, the Mi-24 did not fly at an altitude of more than 1,700 meters, which was completely within the range of anti-aircraft machine guns.
Although the Soviets repeatedly defeated the partisans, the Mi-24 helicopter gunships were also scarred.
And after the United States provided Afghanistan with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, in just four months, 100 Mi-24s were shot down.
By 1989, 80% of the Soviet planes were shot down by missiles.
Of course, the eldest brother doesn't laugh at the second brother.
The US AH-64 heavy helicopter gunship did not please much in Afghanistan.
The AH-64's weapons, fire control system, and electronic equipment are superior to those of the Mi-24, and its ability to withstand strikes is also stronger.
This model was used to unilaterally beat the ground troops of the Iraqi army in the Gulf War, and it was able to retreat without destroying the whole body, which is really out of the limelight.
Is it too powerful?
The main thing is that Iraq was inexperienced at that time, and the ground forces were completely exposed.
However, when the Iraq War at the beginning of the 21st century, the US military still wanted to repeat its old tricks, but it would not work.
During the attack of the 11th Air Regiment on the urban area of Karbala, all 61 AH-64Ds were seriously wounded under the strangulation of a dense network of anti-aircraft artillery fire.
On average, they were hit in a dozen or twenty places.
And the AH-64D is also indescribable in Afghanistan, but don't brag that it is a "great power weapon".
The reason why the straight armed helicopter can be touted as an ultra-low-altitude hegemon must have a premise
That is, the intensity of the war is low, and changing the environment will give you the true form in minutes.
In modern warfare, man-portable anti-aircraft missiles are too cheap, and the range is much greater than the combat altitude of heavy helicopter gunships.
The implication is that helicopter gunships are very passive.
And the Russian-Ukrainian war further shows that heavy gunships are really too brittle, and there is really little use.
So, looking at the long-awaited Z-21 from the mainland, do you still think this heavy helicopter gunship has much prospects?
The disadvantage of heavy helicopter gunships in a landing battle
China's demand for helicopter gunships in the seventies and eighties was mainly to counter the threat of Soviet armored forces in the north.
In the nineties, the main direction was the Taiwan Strait.
At that time, the "Taiwan authorities" were already equipped with AH-1W helicopter gunships and OH-58D reconnaissance planes, which posed a great threat to the mainland's landing operations.
We are in dire need of a fleet of heavy helicopter gunships.
However, with the development of modern military affairs and the changes in the mode of fighting between the enemy and the enemy, heavy armed helicopters are slightly inferior in operations in the Taiwan Strait.
At present, Taiwan's army has deployed eight Avenger air defense missile batteries, three M48 Xiaoqishu air defense missile companies, and two twin-mounted Stinger air defense missile companies, and purchased nearly 2,000 "Stinger" air defense missiles from the United States.
Their air force also has a dozen anti-aircraft missile positions and almost thirty anti-aircraft artillery positions.
With such a tight air defense network, it is difficult to say how much help the heavy helicopter gunship will be for landing operations, and it is even more like taking the initiative to send people to their heads.
In contrast, many people believe that drones are more advantageous and can completely replace heavy gunships.
First of all, UAVs are in no way inferior to heavy helicopter gunships in terms of firepower.
For example, the Pterodactyl 2 can carry 8-12 anti-tank missiles, and the Rainbow 5 can hang 16.
One is enough to destroy a tank company, not to mention the Pterodactyl 3 with a load of three hundred kilograms.
Looking at the flight speed again, it can be increased by half, and you can reach the battlefield faster.
Its airtime is also several times longer than that of heavy helicopter gunships, and it can also provide 24-hour uninterrupted fire support for multiple aircraft.
What's more, drones have low detectability.
By the time the incoming drone was spotted, the two sides were already very close.
Moreover, such as the Pterodactyl, which flies at a high altitude, small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery and portable anti-aircraft missiles cannot threaten it.
Not only that, but drones don't have to worry about personal damage.
The cost of armed helicopters is even higher, and if you count the cost of talents, once it is shot down, it will leave a person with no money and heavy losses.
Looking at it this way, the comprehensive performance of heavy armed helicopters is indeed inferior to that of UAVs.
In addition to drones, we have many forces that can carry out fast, accurate and ruthless strikes against ground fire support and anti-tank swarms.
Such as long-range rockets, long-range anti-tank missiles, satellite-guided bombs and so on.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the development of military technology and the changes in combat mode, and then considering the cost performance, that the mainland is not in such a hurry to engage in heavy armed helicopters.
Therefore, the research and development speed of Wuzhi is far less than that of fighter jets and other equipment.
However, China still has to have heavy helicopter gunships to make up for the last shortcoming.
What do you think about heavy gunships?
Resources
Chen Xi.Army, Navy and Air Force All-round Athlete Z-20 Helicopter[J].Knowledge is Power,2022,(11):54-57.)
Heavy, unmanned and localized: a glimpse of the current situation of global military helicopters[J].National Defense Science and Technology Industry,2018,(01):23-26.)