"Military Andi Wei Face" by Mecha 888
▲ Flight diagram of the suspected armed version of the Straight-20 tactical utility helicopter (picture from: network)
For the current Chinese Army Aviation Force, in addition to the professional helicopter gunship Z-10 and Z-19, there is also a helicopter that plays a pivotal role. And this helicopter is the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter known as the "Irisyo Dragon".
▲The performance of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter independently developed and produced by China is very excellent in similar equipment in the world (picture from: network)
As a representative product of the "2.0" era of China's aviation industry, the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter independently developed by China's aviation industry should be said to be the integrator of advanced technology in the field of China's current helicopter industry. Nazhi-20 as a professional 10-ton tactical general-purpose helicopter, which adopts a single rotor with tail rotor, low rear flat tail aerodynamic shape, the whole machine applies a low-drag shape design, equipped with high-performance rotors and two domestic advanced turboshaft engines, the use of advanced technologies including fly-by-wire flight control, rotor defense / de-icing and other advanced technologies, has the ability to implement a variety of military and civilian tasks under all-weather complex meteorological conditions, and can have very good performance in plains and plateaus. Therefore, the emergence of our domestic Z-20 tactical utility helicopter is of great significance to China in many aspects such as military and civilian use.
▲The Z-20 tactical utility helicopter independently developed and produced by China has good platform modification potential (picture from: network)
Because the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter has a good platform expansion compatibility performance, therefore, it is very convenient to develop different types and uses of helicopters on its basis to better meet the needs of different tasks, such as the recent media reports, there are suspected pictures of the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter with missiles. Compared with the conventional transport version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter, which is mainly used for transport and airborne missions, the biggest difference between the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter is that there is a short wing installed on the left and right sides of the fuselage, and the external mounting point under the short wing is suspected to be able to mount up to 16 small multi-purpose air-surface missiles, and its aircraft should also be equipped with a perfect fire control system to allow it to better carry out observation and strike operations on the established targets.
▲ Suspected armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter is equipped with a short wing that can carry multiple missiles on both sides of the fuselage (picture from: network)
Therefore, the attack capability of the Armed Version Z-20 tactical utility helicopter, which can carry up to 16 small multi-role air-surface missiles, is not much inferior to that of professional helicopter gunships, and even slightly exceeds it to some extent. However, the emergence of the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter does not mean that it will replace the status of the current Z-10 and Z-19 and more advanced domestic professional gunships in the future, after all, compared with the professional gunship, the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter is weaker in terms of protection and mobility.
▲Armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter can effectively strengthen our military's ability to carry out special operations after batch equipment in the future (picture from: network)
In the future time, from the available information, it is speculated that the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter is more likely to be used to carry out some more special combat tasks. For example, the armed version of the Black Hawk tactical utility helicopter, which is equipped with the same configuration as the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter, is used to carry out the heavy responsibility of searching and rescuing important personnel behind enemy lines on the battlefield. With the armed version of the Z-20 tactical utility helicopter delivered to the relevant units of the Platon Army in batches in the future, it is believed that it can also effectively enhance the corresponding combat capabilities of the PLA.