GarryB Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:38 am
self defense system to now the moveable gun (to some degree) which seems to be an improvement to the older and fixed one
The momentum generated by the main rotors is enormous and vastly more powerful than any tail rotor, which means even when flying at 180km/h the pilot can still turn the nose of the helicopter to the left or to the right... which means he can point the wing mounted weapons and gun and optics at targets that the helicopter is not flying directly towards.
That is a huge advantage in combat in terms of untrained people on the ground who will tend to aim directly at the helicopter.
It also means the gun can be attached to near the centre of gravity of the helicopter so when the gun is fired the helicopter is not shifted around so much by the recoil.
Helicopters with undernose cannon turrets buck and move when the gun is fired, reducing accuracy performance.
All the models of the Hokum are much more accurate with their guns and all have the ability to elevate and have a small range of limited traverse to aim precisely at a ground or air target.
When the Commanche was the latest and best helicopter in the world one of the features they went on about was its ability to point its nose at a target... till Kamov started pointing out the nose pointing ability of any coaxial design and then they shut up.
Needless to say the Commanche can't fly sideways at 180km/h.
This makes me wonder what happened to the Egyptian tender and if there is any info on an actual contract or did they back out of it because of CAATSA? I hope not because this thing is truly a beast and would serve the EN really well on its Mistrals.
Sounds like they are buying Su-35s so I would think Ka-52Ks will be ordered too...