Recently, China's development of the straight -11WB (straight -11E self-use model) helicopter gunship in Jiangxi Jingdezhen Changhe Helicopter Manufacturing Plant began mass production, from the factory production line of semi-finished products, it was pictured on the "Bayi Military Emblem" (red arrow pointed to), indicating that it will serve in the aviation of our army, but also become the smallest armed helicopter equipped by our army.
The straight-11WB gunship is not big, but it has a very fierce nickname: the eagle, which is an eagle-like raptor. So, does straight–11 deserve the nickname?
The Z–11WB gunship first flew in September 2015, and its base model was launched as early as 1988 and officially rolled off the production line in 1996. November 1, 2016 – 11E debuted at the 11th China International Aviation & Aerospace Expo.
Zhi–11WB adopts advanced full digital design and manufacturing, that is, the design room transmits engineering drawings to the processing workshop and organization workshop through data, digitally manages and organizes the parts manufacturing process flow, reaches the most accurate production quality standards and assembly standards, makes the helicopter manufacturing reach the optimal level, and has advanced manufacturing technology to make the plateau flight ability, mechanical reliability and maintenance convenience of the zhi–11WB more prominent.
The Z–11 is a 2.2-ton light helicopter with a maximum of 6 people on board and is equipped with: machine guns, rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles... and other weapons and equipment, can meet the requirements of military/police operations, can perform ground support, anti-tank attacks, but also can perform battlefield command /reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, anti-smuggling... and other missions, so don't look at its small size, but the multi-mission capability is not worse than that of medium helicopters.
In the picture, the straight-11WB left pylon is loaded with 4 TL-2 (Sky Thunder 2) light ground-to-ground missiles, and the right side is mounted with 2 CM-502KG air-to-ground missiles, the former used to attack jeeps, motor boats, armed pickups... A class of small targets; the latter is used to attack tank armored vehicles, heavy tow trucks, small ships... Such larger targets, CM-502KG has a cousin, that is, the "Eagle Strike –9E" light anti-ship missile, which is a special missile used by our naval aviation helicopters to strike missile boats/torpedo boats.
Naval Aviation Zhijiu anti-submarine helicopters are carrying the Eagle Strike–9E missile.
The small body plate straight – 11WB can actually hang 4 to 8 air-to-ground missiles is really powerful! The multi-function of the Zhi-11WB is also reflected in the training of helicopter pilots, and after entering the 2010s, our army's armed helicopters have entered a period of rapid development, and have been equipped with zhi-19 and straight-10 gunships, which has greatly improved the combat level of the army aviation, and the army's anti-armor and air-to-ground support capabilities have been greatly strengthened.
However, the training of pilots after a large number of gunships is a big problem, because the requirements for pilots of gunships are the same as the standards of fixed-wing pilots, which requires the training of helicopters to carry out real aircraft control requirements, and the use of straight 10 or straight 19 for direct training costs are too high, so straight –11 also has a large number of task requirements for training pilots.
China had purchased the French "Little Antelope" light gunship in the early 1980s, so that our army had a real sense of armed helicopters, but at that time the country had little foreign exchange, originally to buy 24 and finally only purchased 8, the remaining money to buy the "Dolphin" helicopter patent, because the "Little Antelope" fuselage is too small, does not have the ability to expand, and the "Dolphin" helicopter can be derived from the army type and the navy type... "Little Antelope" is most of the time after arriving in China is also training pilots. Last year, CCTV Military also reported that female pilots of our army use it for real aircraft training... "Little Antelope" has been in China for almost 40 years, and it is about to reach the retirement period, and its work will be replaced by the straight –11WB, with a more advanced airframe and a more advanced avionics system straight – 11WB will be more competent for this task.
The latest Z-20 attack helicopter, with four air-to-ground–10 (AKD-10) heavy anti-tank missiles under the short wings on each side of the fuselage, is also a trend in the development of universal helicopters, and pilot training must also be trained on the Z-11.
In short, the official installation of the Zhi-11 is also the need for the great development of our military's helicopters, because the construction of the helicopter force also needs to be supported by a large number of trainer aircraft, and the cost of the Zhi-11 is cheaper than that of other types of helicopters, and it can also be put into low-intensity warfare, which can be described as advanced equipment of high quality and low price.