Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Today in our show...
I'll become wet under the rain, I'll kill our producer and I'll try to repeat the feat of Mary Poppins.
THE PROVING GROUND
Valkyries are daughters of glorious warriors, who gather the fallen men and transport them to Valhalla.
The blood freezes because of their screams. The light shines from their swords.
Real Valkyries of our days are helicopters of Army Aviation.
If we want to speak about adrenaline, then nothing produces it in bigger amounts than helicopters.
Judge by yourself. Altitude, a fearsome look and an incredible noise.
Do you want more? You will get it!
THE PROVING GROUND COMBAT HELICOPTERS
Torzhok - it's a small quiet town, which has its own gold sewing factory. Kirza boots are being manufactured there.
It has the worst roads ever and the Center for Retraining of Army Aviation, which has people, who can tame these machines.
I've decided to start with the most simple and versatile one. This helicopter is like T-34 tank of World War II.
It's like a Kalashnikov assault rifle. It's like an axe, with which you can chop, hammering and even to cook a porridge with it.
Pilots themselves affectionally call the chopper as "crocodile", following the name of its predecessor - Mi-24 helicopter.
If I was to choose a combat helicopter for myself, I would choose the Mi-35.
I would put 8 of my friends in cargo compartment and I would fly for vacations in one of warm countries.
But if the country wouldn't be very pleased with our presence, then I would show everything what this combat vehicle can do.
Mi-35 impresses by its versatility.
There are three main modifications of this chopper in existence; the Landing, the Transporting and Medical ones.
Meanwhile interchange from one modification to another happens in field conditions and it doesn't require additional instruments.
No one knows more about helicopters than people, who fly them.
Here is a man next to me and he is a Flight Commander of Mi-24. His name is Ivan.
- Ivan, hello! - Hello!
The first question is right about the fearsome armament of Mi-35. What are specific features of this type of helicopters?
IVAN Zhigunov: Commander of Helicopter Flight
"Transport-Combat helicopter Mi-35 is a modification of Mi-24.
Respectively possibilities of usage include autocannon fire. It has a 23mm cannon.
Non-guided rockets. B8V20 blocks with 20 rockets. And anti-tank guided missiles. 8 of them.
Didn't it loose something from its firepower after the part of its wing was cut off?
Because Mi-24 had 6 hard-points, while this one has 4.
No, the firepower wasn't reduced, because of shorter wing.
Well, for my taste, the more weapons you can hang on it, the more powerful and aggressive it will look.
Number of hard-points hasn't changed after all. There were 4 hard-points and there still are 4 hard-points.
Except of various rocket, missile and gun armament, those 4 hard-points of Mi-35 can carry bombs from 50 to 500kg each,
or device for mine laying or incendiary tanks.
And if these are not enough for you, then there is a mount with double autocannon in the nose.
Are you scared already? Meanwhile that's not all yet.
There is another one version of this helicopter with letter "M",
which turns this helicopter into a combat machine that can accomplish combat tasks day and night.
Even if you steal apples from neighbor's garden at nights, guys in this chopper will see you.
This is called a "gyro-stabilized optical-electronic system".
It has a TV-channel, a thermal-detecting channel and a laser rangefinder.
In order words let's put it this way. I am flying with Mi-35 at night.
Then I saw some attractive ladies in my TV-channel, I show you the picture produced by this channel
and then with help of laser rangefinder we know exactly how far we have to fly till their position.
No. You have to understand that TV-channel is used for aiming at day time, when you have a visual contact with the object.
- What about aiming at night? - At nights we use the thermal-detecting channel of course. If the ladies will be very hot, then you will see them of course.
Another distinctive feature of Mi-35 is its simplicity of service.
You can do it in open field.
You can do it in a special hangar for this purpose.
You can do it even in garage of your friend... well, if the size of his garage allows it, of course.
This is a true achievement for a helicopter.
One of distinctive features of Mi-35 is its all-weather capability.
It flies any hour of the day, in any weather, even in tornado. It's a super-helicopter!
That's all. It flew away. Finally I can open my umbrella now, without risking to be taken away by the wind.
There is another one.
"Another one" is a helicopter, which simply hasn't analogues in its class.
Mi-28N - the chopper designed to cause havoc.
After the "Crocodile" we pass to a helicopter, which Americans call affectionately the "Havoc",
while the Russian pilots call it threateningly - the "Mickey Mouse", thanks to its distinctive air ducts and nose fairing like a nose of a mouse.
Despite it has cartoon like look, it can sting very seriously.
Let's start with the fact that tandem arrangement for pilots is used in this helicopter - one over another.
Such solution ensures perfect visibility to the pilot and navigator-weapon systems operator.
Another advantage is separation of duties.
What Americans try to do with lots of money and electronics, we solve with addition of second pilot.
This way survivability of the helicopter is increased... and it looks more brutally this way too.
Composite materials are used in this helicopter and they make it lighter, more durable and provide better reparability.
Reliability of Russian helicopters is legendary.
Several of these helicopters are in use from 80s and everything is thanks to the engines.
No other country in the world managed yet to create what Russian engineers created back in 70s.
Their masterpiece is the engine TV3-117. No other aviation engine in the World has so many variants.
It is so versatile and simple in maintenance, that all engines in production today are always based on the TV3-117.
VK-2500 turbo-shaft engines are installed on both sides of Mi-28's fuselage. They have a peak power of 2700HP.
They are descendants of that specific TV3-117. And they can carry this helicopter with speeds up to 300km/h and payload more than 4 tons.
The main reduction gear and the Auxiliary Power Unit are mounted between the engines.
Thanks to such layout, it's impossible to bring the chopper out of order even in case of successful shot with one round or one missile.
Mi-28 has blades made of composite materials. They are lighter and they serve longer.
But that's not all. The tail rotor is made in form of letter "X".
This makes the helicopter more maneuverable and more silent.
X-shaped tail rotor can be also called as a scissor-shape rotor.
The angle between rotor's blades was chosen in such a way, in order to produce the minimum noise, without loosing its torque.
The biggest advantage of this layout is present for heavy loaded rotors.
Quiet - it's one of the main allies of Mi-28.
Created for night operations this chopper must come as closer as possible to the battlefield, while remaining undetected as longer as possible.
However, if you were detected, then all of your hopes lay on protection and armament.
Protection system is well thought through to the last details.
Multi-layer armored glasses in pilot's and operator's cabins.
Armored plates on pilot's door and operator's hatch.
Armored cockpit withstands direct hits of 12.7mm armor-piercing rounds, fragmentational 20mm rounds and even fragments of guided missiles.
Active Protection System comprises of cartridges with Infra-Red decoys.
All these are about protection. The armament is even more cool!
Mi-28 can get various combinations of weapons.
Right now we are observing a 80mm multiple-launch system.
Hard-points for 8 ATGMs here.
And on this side we can see ASO - Active Protection System - with fire bees, which divert the danger from the helicopter.
Removable armament is similar to Mi-35, while the main strike force of the chopper is a powerful and rapid-fire 30mm cannon with 300 rounds.
This is a real combat mouse. And now the moment came to test the "Mickey Mouse" in action.
I am in Mi-8 helicopter and we are flying toward firing range now, where pair of Mi-28 helicopters will work against light armored targets.
They will use guided missiles and cannons. We'll see what it looks like, because honestly, I don't know. I haven't seen anything like that before.
What else can I say? I am delighted!
The mission of team of Mi28s is following:
There are several targets placed on the firing range. The task for the pilots is to hit the targets following the exercises 200-200.
That means that they have to hit an immobile target with ATGM from 200m altitude and speed of 200km/h,
and then to cover a specific zone with non-guided rockets.
Mi-28 accomplished their job just perfectly, because the helicopter itself is beautiful
and because that wasn't a simple pilot in its cabin, but a sniper-pilot. That's the exact title for all pilots of Army Aviation.
Mi-28 is performing aerobatic maneuvers right now. Indeed, it's the best helicopter in maneuverability in its class.
And what it is demonstrating right now is far from its extreme capabilities.
Aerobatics with helicopters is a quite rare phenomenon.
In Russia, we have an aerobatic team "Berkuts" and it is based in Torzhok.
The team demonstrates totally unreal things with Mi-28 and Mi-35 helicopters.
THE PROVING GROUND COMBAT HELICOPTERS
Training of pilots doesn't take just one day.
Initially pilots are getting trained with simulators and only after many flight hours with virtual machine they pass to combat helicopters.
- On base of which helicopter this simulator was built? - On base of Mi-8.
- Why Mi-8? - Because Mi-8 is a multirole helicopter designed for various tasks, including training, which we will start right now.
He will teach me.
The flight simulator is comprised of two parts.
In our case it's a Mi-8 helicopter's cockpit directed towards half-circular projector
and the brains, which simulate different situations, starting with time of the day and weather and finishing with any malfunctions onboard.
Ok. Let's take-off. I'm impatient to try it. I can't wait any longer.
Push the rotor's control stick forward against the stop. The helicopter began accelerating.
And now steer it with pedals.
- Where are we now? What airport is this? - It's an imitation of Adler airport.
- Aha, Sochi! We are in Sochi!
We took-off. WOW!
- Tell me please, do you receive complains from Adler's citizens about constant flights? - No, we hadn't such complains yet.
Well, there are targets located in the center between runways.
There are targets located in the center between runways... Ok, I saw them.
- Now. Fire. - Oops, miss miss miss.
- That was it, you have to get out from the attack already. - We won't get out, Mikhalych! We won't get out!
That's it, we crashed to pieces.
- This is the magic control device. - Yes, this man turns the weather on. He turns on different malfunctions.
MAXIM LIZURA: Instructor
The left monitor shows the helicopter's behavior in flight, ie its movement in space.
- Thanks to this monitor we can see mistakes, right? If it flies sideways or other things like that. - Correct.
- Ok. Now this monitor. - Here all cockpit's instruments are doubled. We can see what is turned on or off, what actions the pilot does in different situations.
- Ok. The right monitor as I see is an onboard camera to watch his actions in the cockpit. - Yes.
- And what is this? - This is the main control of the entire flight sim. We can set the weather, runway's properties, malfunctions, weapons set.
- Who is flying there right now? - There is our instructor.
- Let's turn off everything for him? Please, turn everything off.
That's it. We turned everything off for him.
Thankfully it's just a flight sim and not real conditions, because in real conditions we would loose our producer now and the Mi-8 instructor.
Contrary to airplanes, helicopter pilots say that once you learned to fly one of helicopters' type, you can then fly all of them.
For full heygh I want something exclusive, something like a golden pistol, something when it is mentioned cause people to round their eyes wide open.
A descendant of the God of War and the Black Shark, the best future attack-command helicopter of our time - the Ka-52.
This helicopter resembles a young lady, who put the best stuff she had all together.
A coaxial rotor system, an armored capsule, perfect aerodynamics, incredible flying properties... many other adjectives, and this is correct.
The main difference of Ka-52 from Mi-28 and Mi-35 is its coaxial rotor system.
It's simple. The upper rotor rotates clockwise, the lower one rotates counter-clockwise.
This gives an additional maneuverability to the helicopter. It can fly sideway, backward and even up-side down.
Well, of course it cannot fly upside down, but Ka-52 can do Nesterov's loop.
Coaxial system rejects existence of tail rotor. All manipulations happen by main rotors and airplane like tail.
This is achieved by a simple at the first glance solution.
If one rotor of the helicopters rotates to the right, then it needs a tail rotor, which compensates torsion.
Well, why not placing a second rotor, which will rotate to the left? A tail rotor won't be necessary then.
The main advantages of coaxial system in combat conditions can be named as less vibrations and better maneuverability.
Except that there is an additional convenience for maintenance personnel. No tail rotor - no need to run all around the helicopter.
So, pre-flight check of the helicopter becomes simpler and quicker.
Another distinctive feature of Ka-52 is its cockpit layout. Pilots sit next to each other here.
Pilots themselves say that this gives an additional sense of support and better cooperation between crew members.
Also in case of extreme situation, with a simple flip of a tumbler the commander can pass flight controls to the navigator.
So, the navigator will fly the helicopter all by himself then.
Ka-52 has a voice alert system. Pilots call it Rita,
who talks to the pilots during the flight, driving their attention to those instruments at which they should look.
And she says to pilot if something is going wrong.
Modern helicopters are equipped with radars, which allow them to search, lock on and recognize targets.
Ka-52 has the "Arbalet" radar. It's a modern development of "Phazotron" Corporation.
You can build the best attack helicopter, install a coaxial rotor system in it, put two pilots inside,
but it will be just a blind toy without a good radar.
I am in the depths of "Phazotron" Corporation, where the General Designer will tell us all pros and cons of its brainchild... if they exist.
- Alexey, hello! - Hello.
Why is it named "Arbalet" (a crossbow) and not like a "bow" or an "axe" or a "pike"?
ALEXEY SHVACHKIN: General Designer of "Arbalet" radar system - The name "Arbalet" was born due to the fact that Americans have a "Longbow" radar. Well, we have a crossbow.
Crossbow strikes farther and more accurately than a longbow.
So, it's like during 100 years war in showdowns between English knights with longbows and the French with crossbows.
Why this system is unique? I know that it is so versatile that it actually has no other like it.
Unique feature of this system is that it is the first time in our country, when a combat radar was installed on a combat helicopter,
which allows conducting of terrain's cartography and locate moving and immobile targets, but also to detect aerial targets,
and it can conduct operations against those targets, meaning their detection, passing of their coordinates,
and together with other onboard systems it can use guided and non-guided weapons against those targets.
In order to understand how the radar works, we came to a stand, where this system passes through some tests.
- This is the operating part of it. - Yes, it's the antenna itself, which has an emitter, a mirror of antenna, which forms a radiation pattern.
- And here are antennas of friend-or-foe recognition system. With help of these, our onboard systems can recognize the target. Is it a friend or is it a foe.
The system operates in two wavebands. The millimetric wavelengths is intended for operation in frontal hemisphere.
Their main role is observation of the ground and air space.
While the decimetric wavelengths were chose for anti-missile protection mode.
Meaning that there are antennas installed around the helicopter. They provide 360 degrees coverage.
And the system warns about missile launches against the helicopter. Meanwhile it can distinct missiles flying in other directions or from us.
- Well, ok. Let's turn it on and see how does this thing work?
- Aha, very funny thing.
- Now the system passes through self-test process. - Cool.
- Right now the system is testing its antenna. Checking angles for possible turns and how accurately it is pointed at specific angles.
- How dangerous is it to get in the zone of its operation? Because these are microwaves.
- Well, our observation sector in frontal hemisphere is +/- 60 degrees.
- Of course there are no emittions right now, because it is in stage of self-diagnostics.
- Is this entire system mounted here in some random order? - No, the entire system is mounted just like it is mounted in the helicopter.
The only difference is that it is more densely packed in the helicopter, while here it has more spaces between parts for ease of access,
but anyhow, it is mounted on this stand in same order as it is mounted onboard of the helicopter.
- What do we have here? - Now we are in programmer's office.
- This is the picture, which is visible to the pilot on his multi-function display.
- These numbers here imitate relative buttons installed on indicator.
- Now we have air-to-air mode turned on.
- Now we will see a target, which will appear on the display.
- The target is still white, because it wasn't identified as friend or foe yet.
- The radar takes the target in tracking mode and in next pass of antenna we conduct state identification of the target.
It is not very simple for a regular person to understand what is displayed on this screen,
but any expert and of course any pilot will easily read it.
We placed an aero-photo and imaging of the radar next to each other.
As you see the river bank, the forest and populated areas are clearly visible on both images.
However, the rest of radar data are not quite simple to understand. We can see only targets and information related to them.
I personally didn't understand anything.
Well, on the left is obviously a photo, while on the right is a monitor with some image like one of ultrasonography.
This helicopter also has a BKU system - Onboard Defense System. It is comprised of two elements. The first element is cameras.
There are four of them installed around on the helicopter and they pass information to the second element.
The second element is a laser system which locks on the missiles and drive them away from the helicopter.
I named this system as... balls.
In case if luck turned away from pilots, they always have a possibility to eject.
Yes, you heard it right. Ka-52 is the only helicopter in the world equipped with ejection system.
Principle of operation is following. The pilot pulls the handle between his legs. The rotors get blown off.
Then explosives on the glass get activated destroying the glass.
And there is an engine, which throws the pilot out of the cockpit in 1.01 second.
Then the parachute opens and everyone remains alive.
You may have a fast helicopter, but this one is faster.
You may have a maneuverable helicopter, but this one will out-turn you anyway.
You may have better armament, but this one won't leave any chances to you anyway.
Ka-52 - a real helicopter killer.
Well. Three different attack helicopters. They use totally different technologies for achievement of same purpose - to fly and to smash.
And pilots learn everything here - in the Center of Combat Application of Army Aviation.
What have I learned about Army Aviation? First, that combat "Mickey Mousses" do exist.
That crocodiles can fly. And the most important is that they left me to fly Mi-8. It was incredibly cool! Torzhok rules!