Mi-28N Havoc: News

The losses for both aircraft are statistically insignificant... perhaps if ten of each had crashed you might be able to point to a problem... remember one B-2 has crashed out of only 20, but they didn't panic...

Or not quite ready... two missing ATGM tubes there... Rushing out to a noise in the backyard with her hair in curlers...

Good mix of weapons though... 6 ATGMs, plus 10 122mm rockets, and 4 air to air missiles plus a 30mm cannon... those 122mm rockets are designed to penetrate protected hangars and destroy the aircraft inside so effectively APHE... would be excellent for concrete buildings or armoured vehicles...

Rostec announces the start of factory tests of the Mi-28 with new high speed blade tips:

https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/9243589

I would guess it is the radar pod needed to operate the Khrisantema ATGMs... essentially it is a replacement for the black nose mounted thimble that controlled the Shturm and Ataka missiles, and is an actual radar that detects targets and directs the new Khrisantema missiles to the targets.

I don't think it uses active radar homing missiles... I think it might be more along the lines of SARH or perhaps even the the helicopter mounted radar tracks the target and the outgoing missile and sends course correction instructions to the missile in flight to hit the target... or perhaps it directs a pencil beam at the target and the missile uses that beam to fly down like an all weather smoke resistant laser beam rider method of guidance.

It does have laser beam riding guidance as backup but is described as being able to be used in full white out (snow) and brown out (dust/sand storm) conditions... which would probably render most laser beam and wire guided and optically guided systems ineffective...

Nice pic...

Rostec begins serial production of Mi-28NM

The company plans to provide 98 helicopters by 2027, according to the CEO

https://tass.com/defense/1206333

It is expected that the Mi-28NM will be equipped with a fundamentally new 360-degree vision radar and control system and will carry smart weapons.

Which suggests perhaps carrying an extra external radar pod for Krisantema might become redundant with the serial production model perhaps...

Just watched this video again...



when I noticed something interesting... I have looked at the video a few times but most of the time I was concentrating on the blurred out missile called Hermes by some and object 305 or something by others... but pause the video at 50 seconds into the video and have a look at the nose mounted ball EO turret... that is new... 6 ports...

It also mentions the underwing pod is specialist equipment for launching Krisantema in zero visibility conditions... ie whiteout or brownout in the desert...

It does say the pod only needs to be carried in extreme weather conditions... which is good...

The 360 degree mast radar allows it to scan an area from behind cover just like the apache, while the ka-52 has to expose itself, thus making it extremely vulnerable

Not as bad as you might thing.... all three (Apache and Mi-28NM and Ka-52) would expose their radars for about 2-3 seconds... to scan the area in front of them... they would then drop down completely behind cover to then process the information and send target data to other platforms and HQ... it would then select any high priority targets that need to be engage immediately so it would then pop up and launch an attack.

The Apache has MMW radar guided missiles that are essentially ARH fire and forget missiles so it could then fire off missiles at targets detected by the radar.

The Mi-28 would most of the time need to laser guide its missiles but they are beam riding and very very fast.

The Ka-52 would also need laser beam riding homing but their new missiles... Hermes... has such a long range it wont matter if it sits up in the open guiding it.

The Ka-52 is also more of a recon helo and can carry suicide drones to explore areas without having a look that sends back target information and destroys one target.

Does the MI-28NM version have DIRCM system, i am not seeing any?

My understanding was that the wing tip pods incorporate the EW equipment including DIRCMs which they don't seem to want to reveal yet.

Other Mils have been shown with DIRCMs like Mi-8, Mi-17, and Mi-26... so I would presume they have a system for all their helos.

Those arrows are part of the display to indicate to the weapons officer where the box target indicator is showing the currently locked target... remember the weapons officer is not flying the aircraft at this point so the helicopter could turn or manouver at any time so the arrows show both the weapon officer where the currently engaged target is in their field of view, but it also indicates to the pilot where the target is so as not to turn the aircraft away and lose lock.

That is my assumption anyway.

I have a star map app for my phone that lets me find and identify stars and planets etc in the night sky... it uses my location and the time and the internal gyros to determine which way it is pointing and what stars should be there... it is not perfect but you quickly find bright stars and the moon etc so you can see if there is any offset to what is actually visible. The point is that it has a search function so you type in the name of a star or planet and it produces large arrows... red ones indicate the object is not visible at the angle you are holding the phone but you move in the direction of the arrow and eventually you find a big circle around the object you are looking for.

Looking at the last two pictures it seems to me that the vertical arrow shows the target, and the other arrows seem to indicate the location of the missile in flight and the horizontal location of the target and missile... note the bottom image shows the right hand green arrow is gone... I assume it located the missile on its way to the target and was not present in the last image because it has hit the target and destroyed itself.

Could be the azimuthal heading indicator, but don't quote me on this. Arrows seems to have regular spacing between them and are oriented much like an 8 point compass would. Might be useful for the WSO when deciding from which wings to launch missiles/rockets from and avoid the aircraft running to propellant exhaust. Might be I'm full of it.

Might be useful for the WSO when deciding from which wings to launch missiles/rockets from and avoid the aircraft running to propellant exhaust. Might be I'm full of it.

An important consideration that us fanboys don't often consider... we are interested in cramming more and more missiles onto weapons pylons but we don't consider the operational effects or implications....

The old branch of HCI, or human computer interaction was used to develop systems... hardware and software, to make it simpler easier and more natural to use, so it almost does not need to be taught... it becomes obvious.

This is a branch of usability, but don't confuse it with early computers that started up by saying hello and then your name. That is not usability, that is just BS marketing crap.

The point is that these days things are not taken separately, but thought of more as entire systems and are developed together to make them more efficient and effective.

Ratnik is the best example where before you might get issued with a rangefinder and a set of binoculars and a huge laser target marker and a night vision scope... these days you get a scope for your rifle that has a laser rangefinder built in to it that can also mark targets that uses a thermal sight to see in any weather and a built in map so you can mark targets and connect to your PDA so you can look through your scope mounted on your rifle at an enemy position say 2km away... lase it with your laser range finder and the precise distance is calculated... the scope has Glonass so it knows your location and with half a dozen gyros on the scope it knows the angles and distance to the target so it can calculate the coordinates of the target... you can take a photo with your scope or even a video and wifi that to your personal computer which can be uplinked to HQ or an Mi-28NM flying nearby... in return that Mi-28NM can scan the terrain all around your position and use its IIR sensors to detect targets and threats and send that information to your map.

If you are special forces you will be marking locations of enemy troops, but also apple trees and minefields or difficult terrain... when an Mi-28NM approaches you effectively get a bit of a gods eye view of the area in front of you and you can use your map and scope to highlight targets that are in your way for the helicopter to take out.

The talk of 80mm drones fired by rocket pods is cool to overwhelm the enemy, but other uses include a simple cargo drone that glides to its target... when flying in enemy airspace at night you could send in an Mi-28NM or some lighter aircraft with 80mm rocket pods to launch a single rocket into the side of a mountain but it fails to explode... in the dark it deploys wings and glides over that ridge and steers itself to a position on the other side of the mountain where a special forces team have set up... it is delivering things they can't get on the side of a mountain... water... batteries... in fact that drone could be designed to be reusable.... they could put some HE charges in it and send it off the side of the mountain to glide down to hit any enemy forces... there are lots of updrafts in mountains... time it right and it could fly a huge distance...

Or it might just be a decoy to get enemy special forces climbing that mountain looking for a special forces team only to be hit by long range artillery rockets that are locked on those mountain slopes... even if they don't get a direct hit the avalanches of snow and rocks should be effective enough...