RH-77 Stealth Attack Helicopter

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Gemballa Avionic Development

Please purchase through the Gemballa Avionic Development Storefront
Thread is closed for posting

RH-77 Cannondale Attack Helicopter



The RH-77 is the premier strike helicopter in service within the Mikoyan-Guryevich armed forces. The RH-77 is part of a new breed of attack helicopters that are lighter and stronger than previous models, that incorporate advanced radar technology and stealth capabilities. The RH-77 incorporates state of the art technologies and lethal weaponry, to allow it to fulfill a number of roles, ranging from counter-insurgancy to full scale assaults.

Origins

The RH-77 fulfills the role of light attack helicopter within the Mikoyan-Guryevich Armed Forces with the heavy attack role being fulfilled by the planned RH-90. The RH-77 was born out of the need to increase the counter-insurgency capabilities of the Mikoyan-Guryevich Armed Forces and was first designed in 2005. Quite simply, the Mikoyan-Guryevich procurement officers wanted to commission a multi-role attack helicopter that could attack enemy armour just as well as it could clear an area of enemy guerillas.

Thus, the concept for the RH-77 was built; a small, light and agile helicopter that could carry a variety of armaments including guided missiles.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Avionics

A TAS or Target Acquisition System is the avionic tool which pilots will most heavily rely on when they are fighting in combat. The TAS is made up of several stabilized electro-optical sensors, a laser rangefinder and laser target designator, this allows the TAS to serve a powerful telescope to ensure that pilots can see the target, accurately determine the range to the target and then paint the target with a laser beam to serve as a point to guide missiles. The TAS assembly can rotate +/- 140 degrees in azimuth, +60/-90 degrees in elevation, giving the pilots an excellent view of the surroundings, and can even allow the pilots to see what is below the aircraft. The movements of ATAS can be slaved to the head movements of the helicopter crew to point in the direction that their head is facing. Images from the camera to be projected onto the crew helmet-mounted optical sights, overlaid upon their view of the cockpit and battle space. ATAS also contains a thermal imaging infrared camera and a full colour daylight television camera, with 1280x1040 resolution.



The DH-01 radar was designed specifically for the RH-90 and RH-77, drawing from principles from other aircraft constructed by Gemballa. The DH-01, made by Cervelo, is a Active Scan Radar which serves as a Fire Control Radar which is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and velocity) to the firing system of the helicopter in order to calculate a firing solution. The DH-01 offers a track while scan capability which allows it to fire on some targets while simultaneously tracking others.

The Cervelo DH-01 Active Scan radar is designed for strike operations and features a low-observable, active-aperture, electronically-scanned array that can track multiple targets in any weather, including storms. The Cervelo DH-01 Active Scan changes electromagnetic frequencies at more than 1,000 times per second to greatly reduce the chance of being intercepted by an enemy aircraft. If the radar happens to be spotted, it can then focus its radar emissions on an enemy aircraft, to overload enemy sensors and thus jamming the enemy radar. This radar fitted to the RH-90 employs a very erratic search pattern made possible by the enourmous computing power at the disposal of the crew which naturally makes it even harder to track. The DH-01 was designed with the Low Probability of Intecept theorem as paramount with a strong emphasis on the lowest possible observability to other aircraft or other systems. Unlke many other radar systems, the DD and DH series of radar has very few moving parts and is much less likely to malfunction in the air than other radar systems employed by other aircraft.

An AESA or Active Electronically Scanned Array radar system represents the forefront of modern radar technology. These radars are deceptively hard to intercept because an AESA radar will change its frequency every pulse, at up to 1000 times per second. Since the AESA can change its frequency with every pulse, and generally does so using a pseudo-random sequence, integrating over time does not help pull the signal out of the background noise. Nor does the AESA have any sort of fixed pulse repetition frequency, which can also be varied and thus hide any periodic brightening across the entire spectrum. Traditional Radar Warning Receivers are essentially useless against AESA radars. This means that the RH-77 can look for long periods of time without being seen in the process.

AESAs are so much more difficult to detect, and so much more useful in receiving signals from the targets, that they can broadcast continually and still have a very low chance of being detected. This allows the radar system to generate far more data than if it is being used only periodically, greatly improving overall system effectiveness.

The radar utilises a separate transmitter and receiver module for each of the antenna's radiating elements. Making up the array of the RH-77's radar are over 2000 15cm long individual transmit and receiver modules. Each tiny TRM weighs in at just 50 grams, yet still contains a power output of six watts apiece, a relatively high amount. To remove the high amounts of heat generated by the AESA, the array is liquid cooled and mounted in a light weight polymer for support. The radar of the RH-77 sits in the forward nose cone, just above the TAS.

This information gathered by the Radar Warning Receiver, Missile Approach Warning Receiver and the Active Scan radar itself is processed by two Indeon Common Integrated Processors (CIP). Each CIP can process 12 billion instructions per second and has one gigabyte of memory, allowing it to store a wealth of information and making the system nearly impossible to overload. Information can be gathered from the radar and other onboard and offboard systems, where it is then filtered by the CIP which will effectively 'gist' the meanings of the signals onto several cockpit displays, enabling the pilot to remain on top of complicated situations by having all the information simply presented onto the data displays in the ergonomic cockpit.

Integrated into the DH-01 is the Cervelo S5 Terrain following radar. The system works by transmitting a radar signal towards the ground area in front of the aircraft. The radar returns can then be analysed to see how the terrain ahead varies, which can then be used by the aircraft's autopilot to maintain a reasonably constant height above the earth. This technology enables flight at very low altitudes, and high speeds, avoiding detection by enemy radars and interception by anti-aircraft systems. This allows the pilot to focus on other aspects of the flight besides the extremely intensive task of low flying itself.

Adding to the powerful Avionics array is the Battlespace Network function which allows the aircraft to connect to and share information gathered from other aircraft in the area. The Battlespace Network is essentially a secure satellite connection for which data, in simplified form, is transmitted between two or more aircraft and is theoretically capable of linking the entire airforce of a nation.

This means that even though only one helicopter has a lock on a target, any other helicopters in range of the target will also be able to engage even if they do not have a radar lock.

The DH-01-S can both scan and track targets as well as communicate simultaneously through the use of both processing units as well as the use of designation when it comes to antennae which make up the constellation of data sending and receiving equipment.

The sheer power and capability of the DH-01-S, despite being slightly less powerful than the system fitted to the RH-90, means that it can scan and track almost any aerial or ground target no matter the size of the enemy's radar cross section. From a distance of 200km, the DH-01-S can successfully detect a target which has a radar cross section of roughly five square metres and can detect a target with a cross section of less than 10 square centimetres from twenty kilometres away.

In total, the RH-77 can simultaneously track and record movements for a total of 32 different aerial or ground targets and engage up to sixteen at once using active radar homing missiles. This gives the RH-77 the ability to address any numbers deficit it may go into battle facing by effectively fighting multiple targets at any one time.

Cockpit

The cockpit was designed from the outset to be a fully glass cockpit wihtout any tradtional analouge instruments. This gives and advantage of having accurate and fail-safe data displays that are often much easier to read than analouge instruments. The cockpit itself is surrounded by kevlar plating, offering a high degree of protection to the pilots. Each pilot has a small compartment to store a 'go-bag' which will contain anything the pilot needs during the case of a forced landing.



The main features of the RH-77 cockpit include a simple and rapid start-up procedure, a highly developed Human-Machine Interface, a lightweight crew helmet designed from automotive racing helmets incorporating carbonfibre and kevlar, large anthropometric accommodation and the highly advanced targeting system as previously discussed The cockpit of the RH-77 is a tandem for a crew of two, with the pilot seated behind the co-pilot gunner. The aircraft can be flown from either cockpit and both spaces are identical in terms of design and layout.

Offensive Systems

The RH-77 employs Active Radar Homing missiles as its primary weapon for anti-armour. Active radar homing is a missile guidance method in which a guided missile contains a radar transceiver and the electronics necessary for it to find and track its target autonomously. Active radar homing is rarely employed as the only guidance method of a missile. It is most often used during the terminal phase of the engagement, mainly because since the radar transceiver has to be small enough to fit inside a missile and has to be powered from batteries, therefore having a relatively low Effective Radiated Power, its range is limited.To overcome this, most such missiles use a combination of command guidance with an inertial navigation system in order to fly from the launch point until the target is close enough to be detected and tracked by the missile. The missile therefore requires guidance updates via a datalink from the launching platform up until this point, in case the target is maneuvering, otherwise the missile may get to the projected interception point and find that the target is not there.

The RH-77 also employs general purpose unguided or laser guided rockets, which can either be high explosive or flechette rockets, which explode in mid-flight and unleash a rain of tungsten darts upon the enemy. Either choice of rocket is capable of wiping out enemy infantry or armour, however flechettes are more suited to the former, while high explosive is designed for the latter. Laser guided rockets require the co-pilot gunner to put the cross hair on the target, unguided requires the pilot to point the helicopter in the direction of the target. Indicators on the HUD show when a target is inline with the rockets.

The Emraad MG90 Chain Gun is the Area Weapon System on the RH-77. The MG90 is mounted in the lower section of the chain gun turret. It uses a 2.8 kW electric motor to load 30 mm linkless ammunition at a rate of 725 shots per minute. The gun has a positive cook-off safety (open bolt clearing) and double ram prevention. The gun can be slaved to the eye of the pilot or co-pilot gunner to fire on the target that the crew member is looking at. This is done by motion sensors mounted on the HUD.




Defensive Systems

The crew compartment and fuel tanks are armored such that the aircraft will remain flyable even after sustaining several hits from 30mm gunfire. The transmission is capable of flying the aircraft for another 45 minutes if it is damaged as such that the oil drains. As both crew compartments are identical, the loss of one crew member means the other can still fly the aircraft home, even though this would mean a hit from a very large calibre weapon.

The armour which adorns the RH-77 is a new blend of composite armour developed especially for use on the RH-77. While it is commonly agreed and known that armour is a must for attack helicopters, it is less commonly thought by many that armour will make up an exceedingly large portion of the weight of a helicopter. Noting this, reducing the weight of the armour of the helicopter while still maintaining a high level of protection was paramount to the designers.

The composite armour is made up of a plate of Aermet 100 steel of 5mm thick, a plate of Aluminium-Lithium Alloy of 10mm thick, with a 5mm strip of Kevlar between the two plates. This armour can be made double thickened by simply adding another layer of armour behind the other. As such, single layers adorn the outer of the aircraft, double layers adorn the underside of the fuselage and cockpit with a triple layer of protectiveness on the engines. When the all of the plates are added to the helicopter, along with it comes an extra two tonnes which shows that even light armour still weighs an awfully high amount.

Fuel required is stored in one of five specially designed tanks which are alligned along the centre of the fuselage and located centrally. Each fuel tank is comprised of a tri-layer protection system to reduce the risk of the fuel exploding when struck by enemy rounds. The outer layer is comprised of Ti-Al-64, a light yet very strong material with impressive resistance to compressive forces; the role of this layer of metal is to prevent small bullets from piercing into the fuel tank itself, or to suitably slow down the velocity of the bullet. The second layer is made up of anti-spall liner to help prevent the fuel from igniting. Finally, the third layer is comprised of a leather bag which a partial self-repair capability if a tear in the bag is less than 5cm in diameter.

The RH-77 also employs a DAS. A defensive aids system (DAS) is a military aircraft system which defends it from attack by surface-to-air missiles, air-to-air missiles and guided anti-aircraft artillery. A DAS typically comprises chaff, flares, and electronic countermeasures combined with radar warning receivers to detect threats. On some modern aircraft, the entire system is integrated and computer-controlled, allowing an aircraft to autonomously detect, classify and act in an optimal manner against a potential threat to its safety. The engines have extremely intense insulation and cooling, eliminated their heat signature and hindering enemy heat seeking missiles' ability to track the RH-77.

The RH-77's stealth is reliant on radar absorbing paint and its low observance throughout the entire spectrum of sensors including radar signature, visual, infrared, acoustic, and radio frequency. This allows it to cover all angles, unlike the F-117 who focuses on the former and F-22 which conversely focuses on the latter. The materials used on the RH-77 are significantly more durable than those used on aircraft such as the B-2 and F-117, as the RH-77 can be kept out on the flightline instead of in climate controlled hangers, which the B-2 and F-117 require to remain effective.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Power and Rotor Blades

The RH-77 employs a four blade main rotor and a four blade tail rotor. The four blade design was selected due to its superior lift and noise supressing ability. The RH-77's blades slice cleanly through the air, instead of hammering it like older helicopters such as the Iroquois and JetRanger. This greatly reduces noise and boost fuel efficiency, by allowing the rotors to turn at a slower speed.

The RH-77 also has an 'auto yaw' feature, keeping the aircraft straight without the crew members needing to keep their foot on the rudder constantly.

Thrust is provided by two Kintech GZR1100 Turboshaft engines mounted either side of the fuselage, with heat suppressing devices to control heat emissions. The engines are rated at 1950kw each, providing an enourmous amount of power for lift.



The cruise speed of the RH-77 is 300kmh and the maximum speed possible is 325kmh. Pilots are never to exceed 350kmh. These comparitively high speeds are made possible by a low drag airframe, and advanced rotor technology.

Airframe

The body of the RH-77 is made from 70% carbon fiber reinforced polymer and kevlar, 16% aluminium, and 11% titanium. The rotors are made from fiber-plastic able to withstand combat damage and bird strikes. Protection against lightning and electromagnetic pulse is ensured by embedded copper/bronze grid and copper bonding foil.

To keep the weight of the fuselage to the bare minimum, large swaths of the fuselage under the armour which were originally intended to be made with aluminium were replaced with composite materials. Composite construction is a generic term to describe any building construction involving multiple dissimilar materials, in this case carbon-fibre reinforced polymers are used. CFRPs are comprised of a polymer, in this case epoxy, which is a thermosetting polymer formed from reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener", is re-inforced with fibres of carbon which give the material it's strength. CFRPs have an extremely high strength to weight ratio which makes them ideal for use on aircraft. The downside of CFRP's is that they can be extremely expensive to replace and require much more mantinence than more typical aircraft materials such as aluminium would. Therefore, these CFRP's have been made into panel forms allowing them to be easily removed and replaced should they be damaged, as well as being covered by a layer of outer armour.

Al-Li or Aluminium-Lithium alloy was also used extensively as a back plate under the armour. Lithium is the least dense elemental metal, much less dense than alumiunium which is in itself less dense than most other metals, therefore when the two are alloyed together, the density and weight of the resulting material is less than that of the alloy while being stiffer at the same time and more resisitant to strain.

The RH-77 incorporates stealth features and crash landing gear for survivability.

The wings underside either the fuselage are capable of carrying two rocket pods or missile racks each, and an anti-air missile mounted on the wing tips. These wings do not contribute to lift in anyway and are soley to provide hardpoints for ordnance.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

Specifications

General characteristics

Crew: 2 (pilot, and co-pilot/gunner)
Length: 18.5 m (with both rotors turning)
Rotor diameter: 15.1 m
Height: 3.67 m
Disc area: 168.11 m²
Empty weight: 5,500 kg
Loaded weight: 9,000 kg
Max takeoff weight: 10,470 kg
Powerplant: 2x Kintech GZR1100 Turboshaft (1950kilowatts/2617 shaft horse power each)
Fuselage length: 15.3 m
Rotor systems: 4 blade main rotor, 4 blade tail rotor in non-orthogonal alignment

Performance

Never exceed speed: 350 km/h
Maximum speed: 325 km/h
Cruise speed: 300 km/h
Combat radius: 700km
Ferry range: 2,500 km
Service ceiling: 7,000 m
Rate of climb: 16.7 m/s
Disc loading: 47.9 kg/m²

Armament


Gun: 30 × 113 mm MG90 Chain Gun with 1,500 rounds
Hardpoints: Up to 6 pylon stations on stub wing
Rockets: Hydra 70 FFAR rockets
Missiles: AGM-114 Hellfire or AIM-9 Sidewinder or AIM-92 Stinger or MDBA Meteor

Purchasing the RH-77
The RM-77 is availabe for $18,200,000 per unit

The Domestic Production Rights are available for $500,000,000,000

[Vitaphone Racing]

First off, the price of Domestic Production Rights is at the discretion of the nation selling the product, they can be as cheap or as pricey as what the nation would like.

Secondly, please keep all chatter out of this thread. Any orders can be made at the Gemballa storefront which is linked at the top of the page.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

For the last time, orders or IC queries should be made in this thread here!

OOC queries should be made via TG.

This thread is not to be posted in, there are no exceptions.

[NERVUN]

Gang, let me state for those who seem to miss the notice above, DO NOT POST IN THIS THREAD!

The OP has asked that orders and chatter go elsewhere, we suggest that you respect that.