US Helicopter Air-to-Air Programs

Dynoman

Dynoman

ACCESS: Top Secret
Senior Member
Joined
29 July 2009
Messages
1,767
Reaction score
2,456
After discussing the issue of air-to-air helicopter combat in another thread I thought the topic needed a separate page, especially when considering the amount of information and photos available on the USAF and US Army's attempts to develop and understand the role of air-to-air helicopters and tactics. I start the thread with information of the two year study known as J-CATCH (Joint Countering Attack Helicopters) in which the USAF's 20th SOS's UH-1 and CH-53 from Eglin AFB flew an adversarial role against US Army AH-1 and OH-58's from Fort Rucker, AL.
615069

Monitor in helicopter from gun-camera

615070
 
J-Catch was from January 1978 through 1979.
 
In 1987, the US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate held an exercise called "Air-to-air combat tests Phase IV". It took place at Patuxent River Naval Air Station and involved simulated air-to-air encounters involving the AH-64A Apache, an MD530F Defender, a Bell 406CS, an AH-1 Cobra and an Aerospatiale SA365N-1. If anyone has any details on the registration or identity of the MD530F involved in this test, I'd love to see them. Thanks.

500 Fan.
 
The Air Combat Tests (Phase I-IV) aircraft were:

April 1983 ACCTI: OH-58A, AH-1S
July 1983 ACCTII: UH-60A, S-76, OH-58A
Dec 1984 ACCTIII: MD530, OH-58A, AH-1S, BK-117
April 1987 ACCTIV: AH-1S, AH-64, BHT 406, SA-365N
 
J-Catch, beginning in May 1978-1979 with a simulator study as Phase I is broken down as follows:

Phase I NASA Langley Differential Maneuvering Simulator study used to examine armed and unarmed helicopter maneuvers.
Phase II Field studies to examine helicopter tactics conducted at Ft. Rucker. Using AH-1's and OH-58's versus UN-1H and CH-3E.
Phase III Field studies to examine helicopter vs fixed wing aircraft encounters. Fixed wing aircraft were F-4, A-7, A-10, and F-15.
Phase IV/V/VI Continuation of Phase III with lessons learned and a new combat doctrine for air-to-air helicopter combat versus helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.
 
If you can find them there were several AATD videos of the last test. Made for some very interesting viewing. Mya be non-existant now.
 
Does any one have the US Army Field Manual FM 1-107 Air to Air Combat available electronically? This manual was written in 1984. It was solidified during a workshop in January 1984 to address helicopter air to air activities.
 
Doubtful that it is available online. It was arguably to shortest lived Field Manual in the history of the Army. It was pulled less than a year after being published by the Army because they did not want the "damned fool Aviators" killing themselves trying to learn how to do "wipperdills" instead of finding and killing tanks. The Army Safety Center was in league with the Army Staff on this. I have seen a few available on ebay and such now and again.
 
Thank you Yasotay. Your explanation certainly makes sense. I'll keep a look out for the manual online. The contents that are described in the manual are:

Chapter 1. Intrduction; Chapter 2. Air-to-Air Threat; Chapter 3. Air-to-Air Combat Operations; Chapter 4. Principles of Air-to-Air Combat; Chapter 5. Air-to-Air Tactics; Chapter 6. Air Combat Maneuvering; Chapter 7. SEMA Air-to-Air Tactics; Appendix: Sample Training Program
 
Dynoman said:
The Air Combat Tests (Phase I-IV) aircraft were:

Dec 1984 ACCTIII: MD530, OH-58A, AH-1S, BK-117
Click to expand...

My first source had an incorrect list of helicopters from ACCTIV. The 530F was indeed involved in the 1984 test. Apparently the BK117 and 530F were fitted with "laser weapon simulators" to represent forward-fixed 20mm guns during the course of these trials.

500 Fan.
 
Last edited:
Dynoman said:
J-Catch, beginning in May 1978-1979 with a simulator study as Phase I is broken down as follows:

Phase I NASA Langley Differential Maneuvering Simulator study used to examine armed and unarmed helicopter maneuvers.
Phase II Field studies to examine helicopter tactics conducted at Ft. Rucker. Using AH-1's and OH-58's versus UN-1H and CH-3E.
Phase III Field studies to examine helicopter vs fixed wing aircraft encounters. Fixed wing aircraft were F-4, A-7, A-10, and F-15.
Phase IV/V/VI Continuation of Phase III with lessons learned and a new combat doctrine for air-to-air helicopter combat versus helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.
Click to expand...

From what I’ve heard phase 3/4 included test flights against threat systems near TTR. This included ground systems and fixed wing aircraft. 79-81 timeframe.
 
Dynoman said:
After discussing the issue of air-to-air helicopter combat in another thread I thought the topic needed a separate page, especially when considering the amount of information and photos available on the USAF and US Army's attempts to develop and understand the role of air-to-air helicopters and tactics. I start the thread with information of the two year study known as J-CATCH (Joint Countering Attack Helicopters) in which the USAF's 20th SOS's UH-1 and CH-53 from Eglin AFB flew an adversarial role against US Army AH-1 and OH-58's from Fort Rucker, AL.
View attachment 615069

Monitor in helicopter from gun-camera

View attachment 615070
Click to expand...
Any details on this non standard paint job?
 
I am not sure why the scheme was used specifically with the J-CATCH program, however the camo scheme is reminiscent of the 'duck hunter' camo developed as US M1942 used by commandos in WWII. Early US Army Special Forces training exercises used 'aggressor' soldiers in duck hunter camo to represent the enemy or indigenous forces and the camo was also seen in Vietnam among LRRP and SF personnel. I suspect that the choice for the J-CATCH scheme may have emanated from that experience. However, that is speculation on my part.
 
Last edited:
Agree - does not look like the friendly helicopters.
 
Looks like the "Leopard" scheme (see below). I have read that several special operations UH-1s and CH-3s carried this scheme but have only seen UH-1s to date.

615965 615966
 
Last edited:
GTX said:
Looks like the "Leopard" scheme (see below). I have read that several special operations UH-1s and CH-3s carried this scheme but have only seen UH-1s to date.

View attachment 615965View attachment 615966
Click to expand...

I saw and sat in one of these former 20th SOS ‘Green Hornet’ UH-1N J-Catch at J-B Andrews Air & Space Expo 2019 (now as 23rd FTS a/c out of Fort Rucker) back in May. So here are my photos below.

Cheers

84895F3D-4F9A-4F50-9B5E-F6BE08FEF60C.jpeg 78649E4A-5EB4-4177-AB5F-F314610F2726.jpeg 1E4FB6C0-469E-49AE-92A1-FB2FB0F8DFB2.jpeg E6F9384D-AC71-4AA2-896D-0C6A878EC1ED.jpeg E6F9384D-AC71-4AA2-896D-0C6A878EC1ED.jpeg 25D17B2D-3826-4551-8F0E-25B5F0FC34E1.jpeg
 
in my opinion

Army and Lockheed Martin needed to be added in AGM-114K (first Hellfire II family product) the side look laser target sensor (as on AAMs) and as result would have universal munition - effective against hard, air targets and soft targets (today height of burst sensor has only AGM-114R2 - late 2010s) AAM Hellfire.jpg
 
Last edited:
In 2015 US Army funding purchase 2 CATM-9X Block II and 7 special air training Sidewinder missiles (without details)
I'm think purpose was some tests Apache air-to-air capability

www.defense.gov

Contracts for September 25, 2015

CONTRACTS AIR FORCE Shaw-Versar LLC, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $950,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for design and construction services.
www.defense.gov
 
Last edited:
Other US Army programs to examine the air-to-air potential of helicopters:

1969 Project MASSTER (Mobile Army Sensor System Test, Evaluation, and Review) at Fort Hood, TX. Concerned about the potential air threat to US Army Air Ambulances in Vietnam. MASSTER looked at a variety of technologies, not just for helicopters, for helicopter self-defense.

1971 Army Combat Development Evaluation Center test of an AH-1 versus an F-4 Phantom II.

1977 Air Combat Engagement (ACE). Examined the instrumentation and tactics needed for helicopter air to air combat. This information went into simulations that helped to determine target acquisition and weapons performance needs for the A2A role.

1978 J-Catch program utilized the USAF 20th SOS as the aggressor group (Red Force) during engagements.
 
Last edited:
1978 Article on ACE from Aviation Digest. Phase II of ACE mentioned in the article may be J-Catch.
 

Attachments

  • ACE1.jpg
    ACE1.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 22
  • ACE2.jpg
    ACE2.jpg
    1.8 MB · Views: 23
U.S. Army has continued to run analysis on air combat over the years. With the later versions of the AGM-114 and improved Fire Control Radar, I think they are satisfied they have a means to deal with threat rotorcraft and low level UAS. "Fast movers," I think the Army expects others to deal with that problem.
 
I found a photo of the Hughes 530F that was used in the air-to-air tests in 1984. It is fitted with a laser sensor (a small dome shape) fitted to the rear fuselage behind the rear door. It also has a tubular-shaped piece of equipment fitted under the nose (which I presume is a laser). The particular helicopter was used as an experimental flight test helicopter. It was attached to the Hughes test fleet for their standard test work and certification of both civil and military versions of the 500. It was the instrumented flight-strain aircraft so it was also fitted with an air data boom and test instrumentation on the main and tail rotors. Perhaps Hughes wanted data for their LHX program or the Navy wanted data too.

500 Fan
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom