Helicopter attack and reconnaissance Comanche RAH-66

Comanche RAH-66 reconnaissance and attack helicopter was created by Boeing and Sikorsky for the American army. 4 January 1996 was made the first test flight of a helicopter. The program, according to which Comanche RAH-66 was created, also provided for the modernization of nine existing Boeing airplanes and the creation of two completely new prototypes, and according to preliminary calculations, all the work had to be completed by 2006.

A complete analysis of the entire weapon system project was completed in June of 2003 and was to be accompanied by the delivery of 78 helicopters in three separate batches to 2007.

In February, the US Army 2004 canceled further research, development, and refused to buy Comanche RAH-66. The reason for the refusal was called non-compliance with the requirements of changing operational situations.

Congress was proposed an amendment to the 2005 budget proposal, which would allow the army to close the Comanche program and reallocate funds to restructure army programs aviation. The army planned to purchase about 800 more new aircraft and upgrade another 400 at the expense of the saved funds under the Comanche program.

But what was the most advertised helicopter Comanche RAH-66

During an armed reconnaissance mission, Comanche was able to identify and identify targets and digitally transfer information to command headquarters. All information was transmitted in real time, which made it possible to change the accents of the attack at lightning speed and to conduct coordination decisions directly during the battle.

The helicopter body is armored and resistant to 23-mm gun fire. The radar cross section was minimized, first of all, by the fuselage of precise shape and internal configuration. weapons.

The helicopter had a complex five-blade main rotor and an additional complex fan-shaped helmsman for an increased anti-rotational ability. The rear screw could withstand hit of 12.7-mm ammunition and perform a turn on 180 ° for 4.7 seconds in the mode of soaring.

Comanche had two identical cabins for the commander and co-pilot, which were airtight and had an excellent pneumatic pressure system to protect against chemical and biological warfare. The remote flight control system was designed for three people.

The cabin was equipped with a Lockheed Martin night vision system, and the commander had a wide field of view (35 ° × 52 °). Observation electronics was connected to the helmet, which allowed to monitor continuously. Helmet Integrated Surveillance System (HIDSS) was based on an active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD). Objectives were determined, and the weapon was activated from a common or individual console.

Each integrated cab had a Harris Corp. flat-screen LCD display, a color display for a digital moving map system, a tactical situation, and a nightly job.

Northrop Grumman provided Comanche integrated communications, navigation and identification (CNI). CNI provided stable multi-wave, multi-band multi-mode radio communications, satellite communications and enhanced position position alert system (EPLRS) via the tactical Internet.

Comanche's armament consisted of laser-guided Hellfire anti-tank guided missiles, Stinger air-to-air guided missiles, flares, and Vupkan-20 2-mm guns. The number of rockets on each door installation varied, for example each door could hold three Hellfire, or six Stinger missiles.

The countermeasures helicopter complex included the AN / AVR-2A (V) advanced laser receiving warning signal from Goodrich electro-optical systems (formerly Raytheon) Danbury, Connecticut, and ITT AN / ALQ-211 SIRCM (integrated radio frequency countermeasure complex), as well as an infrared silencer complex .

The helicopter had a global positioning system, a radar altimeter and an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) from Northrop Grumman (formerly Litton).

Comanche was equipped with two T-800-LHT-801 turboshaft engines from LHTec with a maximum rated power 1,432 hp. each.

Performance characteristics RAH-66 Comanche
Crew: 2 man (pilot and operator)
Length: 14,28 m
Fuselage length: 13,2 m (without gun)
Main rotor diameter: 12,9 m
Diameter of fenestron: 1,37 m
Maximum width of the fuselage: 2,04 m
Height: 3,37 m (before the main screw)
Weight empty: 4 218 kg
Normal take-off weight: 5 601 kg (with 4 x Hellfire and 2 x Stinger)
Maximum takeoff weight: 7 896 kg
Payload mass: 2 296 kg
Fuel mass in internal tanks: kg 870
Fuel tank capacity: 1 142 L (internal only)
Powerplant: 2 x turboshaft LHTEC T800-LHT-801
Engine power: 2 x 1 563 hp (2 x 1 165 kW)
Maximum speed: 324 km / h
Cruising speed: 306 km / h
Combat radius: 278 km
Ferrying range: 2 222 km
Flight duration: 2 h. 30 min.
Rate of climb: m / s 4,5
weaponry
Gun-gun: 1 x triple-barreled 20 mm XM-301 cannon, up to 500 pat. (Available with single-barreled 30-mm cannon with ammunition in 300 shells).
The combat load:
inner compartment: 6 x AGM-114 Hellfire or 12 x SAM FIM-92 Stinger
external suspension:
8 x ATGM AGM-114 Hellfire or
16 x Zur FIM-92 Stinger or
56 x 70-mm HAP Hydra or
1703 l PTB

Comments

[Yankuz]

It looks beautiful. Nothing more to say ...

[Mikhado]

I wish the author translated the article humanly ...
He didn’t indicate that.

[poquello]

"Looks good. There is nothing more to say ..."

Every man to his own taste. For me it looks like a sick aquarium guppy.

[kotdavin4i]

Good morning everyone, it’s stupid to close the project - when the sample was created and tested, they ditched a lot of money, created a car with good combat parameters ... and threw it into a landfill ...

[Revolver]

And what to do - there is no money for expensive toys. And the increase in income tax under Bush Jr would not have failed - he remembered how much it cost his dad the phrase "Read my lips - no new taxes", or rather a departure from it.

[Ironronin]

But for some reason this did not happen with the F-35, where is the logic?

[Avenger711]

Apparently, they did not find any advantages over the Apache. Moreover, the comedian is noticeably smaller.

[KORESH80]

If he had great advantages over Apache Longbow, then in the early 2000s he would not have been abandoned, the Pentagon did not have such Finns yet. problemm. It seems that everything works, it flies - take it and run it in a series, but no - the program is closed, money has been thrown away.

[aviator_IAS]

This project appeared as a result of unhealthy euphoria from the so-called. stealth technology and quite rightly shared the fate of the F-117. In both cases, the main stake was on "invisibility" to the detriment of other qualities. It was expensive, the service was also more expensive than the Apache, and the fighting qualities left much to be desired. They threw in billions of dollars and leaked the program. You begin to believe that it is not without reason that a Russian physicist published at one time a book, if I am not mistaken, "On the interference of radio waves." Foreign strategists swallowed the hook and ended up spending a lot of money on technology, against which we already had an asymmetric response. Just as we were bred at Star Wars, much of the striped designs turned out to be fiction. But unlike the Union, the Americans were only happy with the new opportunities to ditch billions. They still drew themselves. But seriously, the Comanche was "eaten" by drones. Cheaper, simpler and no need to risk the pilot.

[Yankuz]

I hope that not only in models, this miracle will also be in Russia:

[patsantre]

This miracle, unfortunately, is just nothing more than a model.

[Foooxxxxx]

When it will be, maybe the Kamov helicopter is promising!

[0255]

I was also assembling a Ka-58 model, I thought it was cool that Russia has such a helicopter, I thought that it was in service. Then I write "Ka-58" in a search engine - and bummer, it turns out that at best it is just a project

[Kir]

And not even a project, but delirium from designers, this was already discussed on the forum, by the way, if there is no drip, there are also more exotic "flying machines", that's just the question of how they manage to sell them impudently under the guise of models of real cars, so it is necessary to write a toy based on exuberant design ...

[bootlegger]

The tail rotor appears to be on an electric transmission.
I do not see the channel for the mechanical ...

[Freem2012]

There is a tail shaft. Also at the beginning I thought that the electric drive, but on the internet there is a drawing with the image of the insides.

[Windbreak]

To the above written.

[Raphael_83]

Article minus.
Firstly, it would not hurt to expose texts passed through Promt to at least minimal proofreading. I'm sitting wondering what could mean

Northrop Grumman Link Heading System (AHRS)

.
Secondly, nothing is said about the EFAMS system (quick-detachable wings / pylons of the external suspension), only in the performance characteristics it is modestly mentioned that, outside the turntable, it turns out that it is possible to suspend weapons.
Thirdly, three compartments with radio-electronic equipment were provided with excess pressure to prevent dusting and increase reliability.
Fourthly, it is not said about the speed of maintenance and provision: thanks to free access to components / assemblies / weapons, technical personnel of three people inspect and replace the ammunition between sorties in 12 minutes, and for transportation the vehicle can be easily dismantled within 20 minutes for transfer aboard the Hercules.
Fifth, 40% of the outer skin is made of removable panels made using stealth technology, doors, fairings and a number of secondary elements are made of honeycomb composites based on aramid fiber (Kevlar type).
Sixth, what else is it, his mother,

additional complex fan-shaped steering

??? If we are talking about the tail rotor, then please be so kind to write specifically, namely: the tail rotor, 1,37 m in diameter, of the so-called "fan type" "fantail" (an extremely rare specimen, it should be noted, as well as "fenestron"), installed in the annular channel of the vertical tail, has blades located asymmetrically in order to reduce the noise level.
And so on and so forth, you can still find a bunch of information.

And finally, let me fidget. You could write that this ultramodern model, although it had never been in real battles, was nevertheless noted in a whole galaxy of wonderful flight sims, including the eponymous ones, as well as the RAH-66 Comanche vs Ka-50 Hokum (several parts), and the strategic series C&C: Generals (wow, how they were voiced!). AND! Even in the Hulk they starred (a whole cloud flew)!
From SW.

[Hug]

I put you 100 pluses: competently and competently!

[patsantre]

Plyusanul. From myself, I’ll add that the author also did not bother to correctly place the commas, he already cuts his eyes.

[prophet190]

Yes, I remember how I drove in the 3rd and 4th parts. Particularly remembered in the 4-part mission to capture the island in Manila and the defense in the base in the Pacific Ocean, followed by the evacuation of the agent.

[Des10]

Brain! Thanks.

[Freem2012]

The article is worthless, one might say advertising. Everything is the same on the wiki. No disclosure of technical features. Nothing has been written about the transmission. Instead of posting it here it would be better to give a link to the wiki or air portals!

[Foooxxxxx]

[rumpeljschtizhen]

Comanche Design Beautiful
our kind of freak even in the sketch

[dustycat]

It’s very similar to IL2 in profile - IL2 is also not Copenhagen in profile.
However, its effectiveness is more attractive.
And the form is very rational and more thoughtful.
One friend of mine worked on the Zinker project in 3Dmax.
Very similar in fuselage. Zinker was really thought out as a convertiplane.

[Kir]

By the way, although I am not a fan of zakordonniki and those who defend them, the fact is that "ours" is just ......., one step below the "progenitors" of the Ka-50 and Ka-52, and the contours ... ., like ala stealth, it’s not a fact that in reality there would be such angles, with regards to phantasms, I’m also dabbling in truth not 3D, but to expose it as a project, forgive this already into any gate, except in a parallel reality.

[patsantre]

Very interesting helicopter. Really new generation. How much did it cost interestingly that they abandoned it. Apache is a very, very expensive toy, 70 lyamas cost ...

[0255]

we must be glad that the United States abandoned such a good car. Let him fly and fight in C&C Generals, Аct of War, Ka-52 against Comanche and other computer games, and not destroy civilians in countries where there is oil and there is no democracy.

[antonio]

Beautiful predator you will not say anything

[sergey261180]

The body of the helicopter is armored and resistant to 23 mm gun fire

Come on! He then glass 7 centimeters should be thick.

[Des10]

"The helicopter had a complex five-blade main rotor and an additional complex fan-shaped helmsman for an increased anti-rotational ability. The rear screw could withstand hit of 12.7-mm ammunition and perform a turn on 180 ° for 4.7 seconds in the mode of soaring. "
here would be more detailed ...
Somehow it is not said in Russian.
but interesting.

[Constantine]

Comanch, as far as I know, was an epic cut of money. Most likely, its advantages are approximately in the same ratio to Apache as the advantages of the F-35 over the F-16. Is that the shell is fashionable. Now they would have stood like the F-22, but really practical machines like Apache would have fought.

Concerning:

But for some reason this did not happen with the F-35, where is the logic?

Most likely, the F-35 was not covered up because the last project is international, which imposes certain reputation and financial costs. Although, for sure, none of the locals knows and cannot know;)

+ judging by some information, 1292 helicopters for the US Army should have cost about $ 34 billion, which is cheaper than the AH-64D Apache. It looks like the story with the F-35, which should have been cheaper than the F-16, but in fact it turned out to be more expensive than the Su-35 and Su-34 combined, which somehow are completely different in capabilities of the machine. It is possible that Comanche also ceased to fit into the price and could go up at times since from a technical point of view, it is more advanced, and therefore more complex than Apache.

[Know-nothing]

The Comanche was intended to replace the OH-58 Kiowa. With Apache they had to work together.

[aviator_IAS]

Everything seems easier to me. Just the tasks that were entrusted to him began to be successfully solved by drones.

[papik09]

the author, do you speak Russian with the help of a re-interpreter, or where?

[Landwarrior]

Beautiful toy, you can’t say anything As I once wrote in one of the "helicopter" themes - the helicopter most often used in computer games And in the "Red Storm" the old anti-Soviet T. Clancy, one "Comanche" rolls almost a division of Soviet tanks into scrap metal. Read and whinnied

[Raphael_83]

I dare to correct, uv. Sergei .
I reread the "Red Storm" myself regularly, so there are F-19 "Frisbees" (aka "GhostRider") working there from the entire park of invisible people, besides, the action of the novel obviously unfolds in the 80s, when the "stealth" is still plain nothing was known. And in the actions of US aviation, only sorties are described. On the other hand, Soviet comrades fly in helicopters with might and main (however, he dropped 24 quite a bit).
But the "Comanches" took part in a secret operation on the territory of Japan in the book "Duty of Honor" (the one where Japs acquire nuclear weapons and are unleashed in the war with the States). I can’t remember any other operations of these turntables by the scribe Clancy (although, perhaps, in "The Bear and the Dragon" it was necessary to reread).

[Landwarrior]

Raphael_83, thanks for the tip, but was in the "Red Storm" Comanche;) Chapter 40 "The Field of Death". True, with a bunch of tanks I bent over a birch tree I will not quote everything completely, I will give a piece;)

“Buffalo Three-One, this is Comanche, take.
- "Comanche", this is "three-one", report, reception.
“We just destroyed a Russian truck. Everything else is in order. Go cowboys! - could not resist the exclamation of the helicopter pilot

[Raphael_83]

Bloody! A ... hell! My mistake.
And indeed, I apologize. The memory is not the same, before commenting on something I will double-check the source

[Landwarrior]

It's alright I also thought at first that "Comanche" is a callsign Because it’s not clear how Klansic describes him somehow

[Bosk]

And how does it wake up, for example ... at cost ?, after all, "Needle" or "Sting" do not care about beauty, to put it mildly ... I'm not talking about cannon artillery.

[Azov]

But I think that they refused after the Serbs shot down an F-117 with a rocket from the 70s. All this invisibility turned out to be fake and the stealth program was curtailed. Moreover, in the event of a war with the Bedouins, the "Apache" with much more powerful weapons can perform intelligence functions.

[patsantre]

Why didn’t they close the F-35 and F-22 programs? Why do our PAK FAs make it inconspicuous? Sometimes you need to turn on the logic before blurs.

[Azov]

Yes, because the principles are different. both f-22 and f-35 are 5th generation fighters, not subsonic bombers.

[patsantre]

What other principles and where does the bombers? How does this apply to helicopters? F-35 is just a subsonic (at cruising speed) fighter-bomber.
They shot down a subsonic bomber, and where does the helicopter, if you are already starting to differentiate between classes?

Quote: azov

All this invisibility turned out to be fake and the stealth program was turned off.

Once again, if linden invisibility and programs are minimized, why do F-22, F-35 and PAK FA fly?

[Azov]

The principle of "invisibility" of the f-117 in the shape of the hull and in the materials of the outer skin. Radar-absorbing paint is applied to the aluminum f-22. F-35 is generally made of composite materials. On this helicopter I dug only that "the convex shape of the fuselage with flat surfaces, the radio-absorbing coating of the fuselage and blades." It is quite possible that it was made on the basis of the same technologies as the F-117.

[dustycat]

Prompt or something translated? Very clumsy text.
Most likely, after the popular explanation of how to shoot down F117 with old Soviet systems, they refused.
Moreover, the high-altitude use of reconnaissance helicopters - when invisibility is actually needed - is bullshit.
And at low altitude, the old one with a head of observation over the propeller had little radio detectability.
The only interesting thing is the way the weapons are placed on the "doors".
For our "crocodile" it would be a very good upgrade option.

[DuraLexSedLex.]

Beautiful pepelats, don’t tell))) I had a model in childhood, I glued and painted it very carefully))) Beautiful, it may be useless, but beautiful)

[Starover_Z]

Nice device, low-profile, reminded KA-50. The scout turned out to be a noble one. Strange "comrades" these Americans, such an apparatus and refuse.
I would put him +, but I need to support the domestic manufacturer.

[A_Alex]

it should have cost so much, That even amers became shitty. So we closed the project

[POBEDA]

Gentlemen, does anyone know what kind of helicopter crashed in Pakistan about the storming of bin Laden's house? From the photo of the wreckage, nothing is clear .... what else is the unknown helicopter?
http://yandex.ru/yandsearch?text=%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%20%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D
0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%20%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%
D0%B3%D0%BE%20%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0%20&clid=172
5448 & lr = 213

[A_Alex]

I don’t know who paid attention or not, but the thickness of the cabin glass and some panels is visible on the video and I don’t really believe that they will withstand the impact of 23 mm shells! At mi-28, the glazing area is several times smaller and the thickness is an order of magnitude greater!