Abraham Gubler said:
So what part of my writing that in conventional ops high altitude tactics (~3,000 feet) are not to fly over the top of enemy forces but to use altitude to improve standoff engagement didn’t you understand? And as to you thinking that threats change on both sides I guess that’s why tactical implementation of warfare has remained completely static over the past 3,000 years?
Attack helicopters now have the capability to automatically detect and precisely localise missiles launched at them and automatically implement the appropriate countermeasure. In a JMR 2020s attack helicopter this could even include a high power DIRCM or a HPM to defeat the missile. What’s the countermeasure to this? Stealth anti-aircraft missiles or armoured ones?
Actually I think you both have made some good points. In all honesty a good commander is going to operate his aircraft in the smartest most survivable method that can accomplish the mission. Almost all efforts now are ‘combined arms’ mission. There are signal and cyber intelligence efforts on going and it is being conducted from the front line to rear area. By 2020, at least for the US most helicopter units will operate in conjunction with unmanned air vehicles, out looking for the air defense systems. Just like a fixed wing strike package the attack helicopter will rarely operate in a major battlespace by itself.
If there are TOR and Pantsir out there, I very much doubt the helicopter is going to be flying at altitude. I also doubt the helicopters are going to be out flying NOE in bad guy land if there are copious amounts of small arms. IF they have to fly through bad guy land they will likely do as the Israeli’s did in 2006 with their Blackhawks; fly as low and fast as they could make the helicopter fly to the very last moment, land and leave as quickly as they got there. The USAF CSAR missions in Kosovo operation (a high end integrated air defense network for sure) did the same to rescue an F-117 pilot. Attack aircraft will likely use running fire tactics to the extent they can to not be easy targets for light weapons.
If there are no high end AD systems to deal with and the MANPAD threat is known to be incapable of overcoming the aircraft survivability equipment by all means I would expect the helicopters to operate at altitude. Indeed in some cases they will fly well above the 3000 ft (above ground level) mentioned. They do this because at the higher altitudes the sound of the rotor system rarely can be heard on the ground. This is obviously dependent on the atmospheric conditions, but at night flying slowly at high altitude allows Apaches to operate with relative impunity.
From personal experience I can tell you that twenty two years ago I was flying as fast and as low as I could wary of the dread ZSU23-4, and Igla. Twenty years ago flying the same profile but without the dread nemesis, and after my wingman called an RPG zipping between the two helicopters, we immediately started flying missions at 2000 ft minimum altitude.
The Apache still has to face the AD system, an AD system that is likely to outrange it. The abilities of defensive aid-suites are impressive but they rely on being superior to the threats they face, and those threats themselves evolve to defeat the defensive aids systems. Attack helicopters are now in the same technology game as fast jets, between evolving countermeasures and evolving threats. DIRCM and HPM will not be a Panacea either just as the first development of the RF jammer did not render radars obsolete and chaff did not render missiles obsolete. For instance, I know for a fact that a number of methods for defeating MAWS are being looked at including making the missile harder to detect. JMR will not enter service (assuming it does) until the 2030s based on the current DoD schedule, a lot can happen in that time but certainly neither DAS or IADS technology will stand still.