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I have pondered how to write to this for a bit. I could have easily blown the thread up on this but will stay short. It roles of the tips of your fingers to say "civil rotorcraft" are fine for military use. They are not. They are not designed to get shot up. That is the reality of military rotorcraft. In thirteen years somewhere north of 500 helicopter have been shot down in combat. The number hit is likely four times that (being conservative). Unlike fixed wing that have to deal with a dozen projectiles on a bad day, military rotorcraft can and do deal with up to thousands on a bad day. Ask someone who went into the Sha-e-Kot Valley or flew with 11 Regt. Ask the CV-22 pilots who flew ~400 miles after having their aircraft shot up by small and medium caliber AAA. How many civil aircraft are designed to take 23mm hits and continue operating. They don't plan to operate in that environment, and should not have to pay for that expense.Certainly you can use civil rotorcraft for military operations, they are all the time, but then you 'can' do surgery with kitchen knives too. Yes you can make civil rotorcraft more military by adding armor and hardened systems. But you add the dread of all flying things; weight. Suddenly your nimble 6k weight helicopter is weighing in at 7.5k and wallows through the sky. Your rotor system that was carefully designed to last a real long time at 6k going out to the oil rig and back is bench pressing in a lot more in dirty environments while being slung around and occasionally taking a bullet. Let's ask the Canadians how their maritime helicopter program with Sikorsky has gone.Finally I was there when the AH64 and UH60 were new. Earlier pundits made the same "goldplated overkill' comments regarding those exceedingly expensive more than was needed bloated pentagon programs. I have to wonder why Sweetman has not argued for transitioning the B787 to the bomber roll. Some new electronics, racks in the cargo holds and billions saved.
I have pondered how to write to this for a bit. I could have easily blown the thread up on this but will stay short.
It roles of the tips of your fingers to say "civil rotorcraft" are fine for military use. They are not. They are not designed to get shot up. That is the reality of military rotorcraft. In thirteen years somewhere north of 500 helicopter have been shot down in combat. The number hit is likely four times that (being conservative). Unlike fixed wing that have to deal with a dozen projectiles on a bad day, military rotorcraft can and do deal with up to thousands on a bad day. Ask someone who went into the Sha-e-Kot Valley or flew with 11 Regt. Ask the CV-22 pilots who flew ~400 miles after having their aircraft shot up by small and medium caliber AAA. How many civil aircraft are designed to take 23mm hits and continue operating. They don't plan to operate in that environment, and should not have to pay for that expense.
Certainly you can use civil rotorcraft for military operations, they are all the time, but then you 'can' do surgery with kitchen knives too. Yes you can make civil rotorcraft more military by adding armor and hardened systems. But you add the dread of all flying things; weight. Suddenly your nimble 6k weight helicopter is weighing in at 7.5k and wallows through the sky. Your rotor system that was carefully designed to last a real long time at 6k going out to the oil rig and back is bench pressing in a lot more in dirty environments while being slung around and occasionally taking a bullet. Let's ask the Canadians how their maritime helicopter program with Sikorsky has gone.
Finally I was there when the AH64 and UH60 were new. Earlier pundits made the same "goldplated overkill' comments regarding those exceedingly expensive more than was needed bloated pentagon programs. I have to wonder why Sweetman has not argued for transitioning the B787 to the bomber roll. Some new electronics, racks in the cargo holds and billions saved.
