The Evolution of Military helicopters since 1945
Introduction
Since the 20th century, aircraft have been an important part of military power. Military helicopters have therefore evolved from simple war crafts to sophisticated weapon systems, and this has mostly been attributed to the development of technology over the years. Even though there has not been any other major war since the end of World War II, different countries such as the United States and Russia have been hugely involved in developing modern war crafts for combat. Earlier helicopters were designed to counter Soviet armour nut now; attack helicopters have to be designed and built in such a way that they can cope with different threats, some of them taking them back to their counterinsurgency roots. In the modern military and war realm, fire support of ground forces has outdated airmobile manoeuvres and autonomous helicopter forces. In general, all military aircraft now fall into either one of the following categories: fighters, bombers, ground-support, transport and cargo planes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles. This paper looks at the evolution of military helicopters since 1945 and looks at the various improvements that military aircraft have undergone over the years since the end of World War II.
History and Background
Mobility is one of the most important aspects of war. It offers the capacity to move and support military allies and also allows those that possess it to locate, pursue and engage an enemy. As Durant notes, “thanks to its ability to restore the balance of force and destabilize the adversary, mobile exerts a dual effect, both physical and psychological, in what remains a dialectic of two opposing wills…this, without doubt, explains the crucial role played historically by cavalry and, later by the battle tank.”[1] When the first practical aircraft were produced in the late 18th century, in the form of hot-air and hydrogen balloons, they were quickly adopted for military purposes. During the same century, the French National Convention sanctioned the formation of a military tethered-balloon organization which led to the formation of an Aerostiers company. Later on, the very first military reconnaissance was made from an air balloon. As a result, the French armies experienced many successes in battle due to the use of these balloons during their war encounters. During the American Civil War, similar reconnaissance balloons were used. Real military aviation began with the aptness of the navigable airstrip in the late 19th century and later, in the first decade of the 20th century, the aeroplane was invented in military aviation. When the two brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, made the first powered and controlled airplane in 1903, they believed that such aircraft could be used mainly for military reconnaissance.
By World War I, aviation enthusiasts were convinced that the improvement of airplanes would lead to great advancements in military power. In the beginning, airplanes did not offer the vertical battlefield standpoint, replacing the air and hydrogen balloons that were used to serve this purpose since the American Civil War as previously mentioned. When enemies started countering this advantage, aircraft used in battle started being armed and air battles begun. This was still not enough for the regular army; however, maintaining this aviation was fringe to the seriousness of the ground warfare. From the 1920s, the true power of air combat started to be realized by most armies and by World War II, the real capabilities of possessing air power had been realized, and this acted as the supreme wakeup call. The technological advancement that begun in the second part of the 20th century enabled the gradual development of a new form of flying cavalry.[2] After the emergence of helicopters, rotary-wing aircraft became actual combat systems and even formed autonomous airmobile forces. “In parallel with continuous platform improvement thanks to the considerable technical advances of the past 30 years, the helicopter has been able to adapt and learn lessons from the various conflicts that have marketed its existence.”[3] The emergence of helicopters offered unique flying capabilities. Even though they were invented before the start of World War II, it was only during the Korean War of 1950 to 1953 that they started being used in heavy combat.
The helicopter has become the emblematic representation of conflict. Today, it is present in a huge spectrum of defence missions, and in public security roles. In the American force, this reality translates into rigorous use of the rotary-wing plane, leading to early ageing of fleets and huge maintenance costs. Systematically, the dual heritage of the Cold War and military development has favoured the emergence of erudite new generation systems that require huge budgets to produce and operate. Even though these types of helicopters offer unprecedented technical and tactical capabilities in air combat, the current political and budgetary context is raising concerns about the viability of this model. However, despite being faced by these limitations, air combat, specifically helicopters, have undergone major evolution over the years and continue to undergo improvements as technology continues to advance.
The Evolution of Helicopters
The world’s first helicopter was developed in 1936 when Germany made rapid progress in vertical flight and designed and constructed the Focke-Wulf FW-61 which is considered the first functional helicopter. After the Focke-Wulf FW-61, designed by Igor Sikorsky, the R-4 was developed in 1943, and it had a single lifting-roto/single vertical-plane tail roto configuration. It became the first mass-produced helicopter and could be used in combat. In 1945, the first helicopter to be certified for civilian use was developed. In the mid-1950s, French state-possessed maker, Sud Aviation, tried different things with an assortment of rotating wing structures including the SA 3120 Alouette light helicopter.[4] While the Alouette model broke a few helicopter speed and separation records, government support was tepid, at best. The first jet-powered helicopter came in 1955 when the Aerospatiale SA-313 Alouette II was developed by the French. It started setting records very quickly, building up a helicopter elevation record of 26,932 feet in June of that year. An Alouette II drew attention when it turned into the main helicopter to play out a mountain salvage, clearing a stricken climber more than 13,000 feet up in the Alps, and again in 1957 when it scanned for the team of a smashed Sikorsky S-58 on Mont Blanc. The SA-313 would proceed to serve in 47 militaries, gaining differentiation as the main helicopter furnished with hostile to tank weapons (Nord S.11s). More than 1,500 Alouette IIs were worked through 1975, including permit assembled renditions created in the U.S.
The pillar of U.S. Armed force attack units in Vietnam was the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, famously known as the Huey. In 1962, armed force pilots included turret-mounted programmed 40-mm projectile launchers, slip mounted rocket cushions and remotely trainable 7.62-mm assault rifles. “Some helicopters carry armour, but given that weight limitations are even more important than in fixed-wing aircraft, clearly there are limits to what can be done…the solution was to equip helicopters with their own standoff weapons, guided air-to-surface missiles…specially designed machines of this kind, such as the American Huey Cobra and the Soviet Mi-24 Hind, debuted in the 1970s.”[5] These investigations, which demonstrated powerful in supporting helicopter attack tasks, prompted the AH-1G HueyCobra, conveyed in 1967 as the main reason constructed helicopter gunship. With its pilot situated behind or more the heavy weapons specialist, the HueyCobra spearheaded the pair ventured up cockpit design of future assault helicopters. After the Vietnam War, the Mil Mi-24 was fielded and became the fastest and most capable helicopter gunship of that time. It was mostly used to attack ground, armored vehicles and mounted guided attack missiles. It also had a small passenger and cargo bay that limited it to have a troop-transport capability. Later, the Mi-28 Havoc was developed, which was a refinement of the Hind, and it was purely a gunship as it did not have a passenger bay. The McDonnel Douglas AH-64 became the successor of the Huey Cobra. It was a heavily armored antiarmour helicopter which was slower compared to its predecessor. However, it had sophisticated navigation and fire-control systems. It began operating in 1986 and proved to be very effective in the 1990 to 1991 Persian Gulf War.
After the Alouette, came the Bell UH-1 Iroquois which became the embodiment of the helicopter for individuals all over the world. Its relationship with Vietnam in history and in mainstream society guaranteed its status as did its pivotal use by American Forces. More than 16,000 military and regular citizen instances of the Huey family have been constructed, and creation proceeds with today with the military UH-1Y and non-military personnel Bell 412. Right now, the world’s most produced helicopter is the Mil Mi-8. It started gaining much interest after Vietnam demonstrated the value of rotary-wing aircraft like the Huey. As David states in his book, Airpower and Technology: Smart and Unmanned Weapons, “Precision air-to-ground weapons were used extensively in Vietnam, and they generated great enthusiasm there for they promised to overcome the difficulties entailed with the addition of many support aircraft to strike packages.”[6]
In 1965, the first dedicated attack helicopter was developed. It was called the Bell AH-1 Cobra. It performed rescue missions and escorted transport helicopters. Later in 1971, the first fully aerobic helicopter came to be. It was called Westland Lynx and had roles in transport, armed escort, anti-tank, anti-submarine, and other roles, and it flew during the Falklands War in Iraq. In 1974, Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk was developed and was also known as the modern Huey. It entered military service in 1979 as the new assault helicopter. In 2010, Eurocopter X3, the world’s fastest helicopter, was developed. The X3 was a contender for the U.S. Armed force’s Armed Aerial Scout prerequisite yet it wasn’t chosen. Eurocopter/Airbus see future applications for the X3’s innovation in the seaward oil market and rapid between city transport administrations to landing scenes not usable by fixed-wing turboprops.
Due to the technological advancement of the 20th and 21st century, helicopters have been extensively adapted to submarine roles, with the ability to dip sonar sensors underwater to locate enemy targets and launch self-homing torpedoes to neutralize them. Such helicopters also server as shooting platforms for anti-ship missiles and are useful in carrying surveillance radars, typically sharing information with their mother ships.
Since 1945, as seen in this report, air warfare has undergone huge development and improvement in terms of improving air maneuver and developing combat aircraft. As mentioned, the first airplanes were not very effective in war as developments in air maneuver and armored aircrafts had not been made. With time, aircraft have undergone improvements both in efficiency and effectiveness in combat. Aircraft have evolved in having the capability to fly and at the same time fire at enemies at long range. Helicopters, which are seen as the most effective form of air combat due to their ability to easily maneuver in the air and cost-effectiveness compared to other aircrafts such as jets, have had rather humble beginnings and were seen as the future of land warfare and have now become the new decisive weapon replacing battle tanks.[7] However, these improvements have been made despite the numerous limitations in political and operational limitations that have made such improvements and developments rather slow. However, “they have been largely successful in the effort of combining interdiction and support at standoff distance performed by latest-generation platforms incorporating all the latest technological advances, as well as close support using older helicopters.”[8]
Conclusion
Today, the helicopter is a possibly autonomous weapon and the modern-day cavalry of ground forces. It is also a candid workhorse for all services; all bowled into one. The current technological environment provides more positive speculations for the advancement of more powerful and faster helicopters that could potentially revolutionize combat. Various militaries all over the world are working to develop more advanced aircraft, even though this raises disapproving questions since no one anticipates the emergence of another major war. Although the first extensive use of helicopters in the war was handicapped by the inadequate abilities of the early aircraft and the increasing need to come up with procedures under wartime pressure, helicopters were extensively hailed as tools that would be critical in future conflicts. We cannot compare the technology that is present now with that which was present during World War I and World War II and therefore, we cannot compare helicopters that are being developed now to those that were used in the world wars. As technology continues to advance, so will the war aircraft, and this will be crucial in determining the outcome of military combat in future.
Bibliography
Brooks, Risa. Creating military power: The sources of military effectiveness. Stanford University Press, 2007.
Durand, E., B. Michel, and E. Tenenbaum. “Helicopter Warfare–The future of air mobility and rotary wing combat.” IFRI Laboratoire de Recherche sur la Defence, Bruxelles (2012): 15.
Mets, David R.. Airpower and Technology : Smart and Unmanned Weapons, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2008.
Van Creveld, Martin. The Age of Airpower. Hachette UK, 2011.
Tegler, Eric. 2020. “The 15 Most Important Helicopters Of All Time”. Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/g2977/most-important-helicopters/.
[1] Durand, E., B. Michel, and E. Tenenbaum. “Helicopter Warfare–The future of air mobility and rotary-wing combat.” IFRI Laboratoire de Recherche sur la Defence, Bruxelles (2012): 7.
[2] Ibid, 7.
[3] Ibid,
[4] Eric, Tegler. 2020. “The 15 Most Important Helicopters Of All Time, 1.
[5] Martin, Van Creveld. The Age of Airpower. Hachette UK, 2011.210.
[6] David R. Met. Airpower and Technology: Smart and Unmanned Weapons, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2008. 111.
[7] Risa, Brooks. Creating military power: The sources of military effectiveness, 70.
[8] Ibid, 53.