Are helicopters adapting to become useful battlefield fire support assets? I had grown skeptical of their value over the last two decades. I guess I'm not convinced we get bang for the buck with attack helicopters even if they are more survivable.
This is interesting:
Likewise, the integrated defensive aid suites on Israeli AH-64s have consistently defeated man-portable air-defence systems, making helicopter losses in Ukraine far less relevant as an observation. The Russians have had an equivalent system offered for export for more than a decade. Notably, this has attracted very little comment.
You may recall my skepticism of the value of attack helicopters based on worries going back to the Iraq War and reinforced by air defense capabilities demonstrated in the Winter War of 2022.
Are new systems preserving their lease on life? Not only are helicopters getting better defensive suites, but new weapons keep them out of the line of fire. They are dependent on other sensors to strike. And so add complexity to technology and tactics. But they do revive a form of air support that I'd thought was dying on a conventional battlefield.
Although the question of whether there is a need for even survivable manned helicopters has yet to be determined. At the very least, attack helicopters have apparently reached peak usefulness despite advances, per new DOD guidance for the Army that will “Reduce and restructure manned attack
helicopter formations and augment with inexpensive drone swarms capable
of overwhelming adversaries[.]”
And couldn't rocket launchers on light trucks provide the non-line of sight rockets that the other sensors direct? Which eliminates the need for expensive helicopters with defensive suites to provide the fire support, eh?
UPDATE: Last hurrah for an era that is long gone?
The Army awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses to 15 aviators who helped kick off the air campaign of Operation Desert Storm in January 1991.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
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NOTE: I made the image with Bing. Beware the ASSROCIOTS!
