Russian Mil Mi-28 "Havoc"

Mil Mi-28 Havoc is a modern combat helicopter able to destroy armoured and unarmoured
combat material, low and slow flying airborne vehicles and other battlefield targets. The
helicopter design is based on the conventional pod and boom configuration with a tail rotor.
The design of this helicopter is similar to well-known older battle helicopter Mi-24 Hind, which
is used in many countries of East Europe incl. Czech Republic. The pilot and the
navigator/systems officer are accommodated in two separate cockpits in tandem configuration
under individual canopies. The fuselage of the Mi-28 has a bay fitted with a hatch door. The bay
can accommodate three people for the rescue of downed friendly air crew. The helicopter has
non-retractable tricycle tailwheel type landing gear. The energy absorbing landing gear and
energy absorbing seats protect the crew in a crash landing or in a low-altitude vertical fall. The
crew are able to survive a vertical fall up to 12 metres per second. When the helicopters
altitude allows parachute operation, the crew can bail out in an emergency. If the choice is
made to bail out then it is possible to jettison the wings and cabin doors in order to remove any
obstruction which could otherwise be caused by the protruding parts of the helicopter.

The helicopter can be operated autonomously for long periods from poorly prepared pads in
the forward area of operations.The helicopter's construction makes it suitable for
transportation by aircraft to the theatre of operations with minimum stripping and rapid
reassembly.

The helicopter can fly at a maximum speed of 300 km/hour, can fly rearwards and sideways at
speeds up to 100 km/hour and is able to hover turn at 45 degrees per second. This highly
manoeuvrable helicopter is able to demonstrate aerial stunts such as loops and snap-rolls.

Mi-28N Night Havoc

In August 1996 the Moscow Helicopter Plant rolled out a first prototype of the day and night
capable version of the helicopter, the Mi-28N Night Havoc. The Night Havoc helicopter first
flew in November 1996 and the test procedures are scheduled for completion during 1999.

The surveillance and fire control system developed for the Mi-28N has the wide and narrow
field optical channels together with an optical television and night vision infrared channel.

The Night Havoc helicopter retains most of the structural design of the Mi-28. The main
difference is the installation of an integrated electronic combat system. Other modifications
include the main gearbox for transmitting higher power to the rotor; new design of high
efficiency blades with swept- shaped tips; an engine fuel injection control system for high
power operating modes.

The main sensors of the integrated electronic combat system are the microwave radar antenna
mounted above the rotor head and a FLIR (forward looking infrared) system.. The helicopter is
able to hover under cover with just the radar head looking over trees, buildings or high ground.
The integrated combat system uses onboard processing to display the helicopter location on a
moving map indicator, and to show the flight, systems and target information on the cockpit
liquid crystal displays. The crew are equipped with night vision goggles. The pilots are able to
perform nap of the earth flight missions in day or night conditions and in adverse weather.

The g-loading of the Mi-28N exceeds 3g and a range of acrobatic manoeuvres including a
vertical loop have been demonstrated in public.

Development

The development of this helicopter had started in the end of 70's   according to specifications
annonced by Soviet Ministry of Defense like the best competitor had started development of
Ka-50.

Avionics

Cockpit

The crew have two compartments separated with armoured partitioning, the pilot seated in the
higher rear compartment and the navigator/systems officer in the front compartment. The
Mi-28 has a fully armoured cabin including the windshield which withstands impact by 7.62 and
12.7 mm bullets and 20 mm shell fragments. It is equipped with state of the art sighting and
observation, pilot, navigation and communications systems.

The cockpit is designed specifically to minimise the workload on the pilot particularly during
low altitude flight and combat missions:

          only the information relating to the completion of the combat mission is presented to the
          pilot and non vital quantitative data is excluded.
          the control systems are grouped so the controls used in flight are arranged on the left
          panel, the pitch-throttle lever and the control stick, and the controls used for flight
          preparation are mounted on the right hand side panels.
          the helicopter systems automatically carry out the data processing and system control
          functions.
          the systems assign priorities in the deployment of weapons.

Engines

The Mi-28A helicopter is powered by two TV3-117VMA turboshaft engines. The power plant is
fitted with deflectors and separators to prevent dust ingestion in air intakes to protect the
engines from wear when taking off from unprepared pads. The engines are fitted on either
side of the fuselage to enhance the combat survivability.The helicopter is equipped with an
auxiliary power unit (APU) for self- contained operation.

The fuel tanks are filled with polyurethane foam in order to reduce the risk of explosion. In the
event that the fuel tanks sustain damage, any rupture holes in the tanks are healed by latex in
the self- healing covers. The fuel feed system in the helicopter's powerplant operates under
vacuum, which prevents the helicopter being flooded with fuel and being vulnerable to fire if
the pipelines are damaged in combat.

The thermal signature of the helicopter has been reduced by a factor of 2.5x compared to its
predecessor, the Mi-24 helicopter. The engine has exhaust mixer boxes over the exhaust ducts
and thermal screening to provide protection against heat seeking missiles.

If the helicopter transmission gearboxes sustain damage for example by a missile fragment
penetrating the gearbox casing, the gearbox will operate for 30 minutes without oil.

Rotor blades

The main rotor head of the Mi-28 has elastomeric bearings and the main rotor blades are made
from composite materials. The tail rotor is designed on a biplane configuration with
independently controlled X-shaped blades. The turnable stabilizer is fitted asymmetrically on
the end of a tailboom. In real combat missions the single rotor design allows the helicopter to
continue flight and land with damaged main rotor blades or damaged anti-torque blades in the
majority of cases.

A new design of rotor blade, all plastic with swept shaped tips has been installed on the Night
Havoc Mi-28N helicopter. The new all plastic blades can sustain hits from 30 mm shells.

Weapon systems
 
 

The crew has two members. The pilot in the second of the tandem cabins flies the helicopter
and uses the unguided weapons. When a high priority target is detected, the pilot uses a
helmet mounted target designator which allocates the target to the navigator's surveillance and
fire control system. The navigator/weapons officer in the forward cockpit is then able to deploy
guided weapons or a movable gun against the target. The targeting system follows the
direction of the pilot's eyes. The navigator can seek out and identify targets using the movable
surveillance and fire control unit mounted on a gyrostabilised platform. The navigator can then
deploy guided missiles and the helicopters fast moving gun against the targets.

The Mi-28A has small sweptback mid-mounted stubwings with four suspension units.
Countermeasures pods are mounted on the wingtips. The helicopter's weapons systems are
selected according to the requirements of the combat mission. The helicopter can be armed
with a mixture of air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, unguided rockets and podded guns.
The shells used for the gun and the antitank guided missiles carried on the helicopter are
standard ordnance used by land forces and therefore the logistics of rearming quickly in
forward bases is simplified.

Integrated surveillance and fire control system

The integrated surveillance and fire control system has two optical channels providing wide and
narrow fields of view and a narrow field of view optical television channel. The system can
move within 110 degrees in azimuth and from +13 to -40 degrees in elevation. The gun moves
in the same range and in synchronisation with the fire control system. The surveillance and fire
control system incorporates a built in laser range finder which provides the target range data to
the airborne digital computer for computation of the firing parameters for the gun and for the
launch of the unguided rockets. The data is also downloaded from the laser range finder for the
launch of the guided missiles and the selection of the optimum launch trajectory.

Anti-tank missile

The Mi-28N Night Havoc helicopter is armed with Shturm and Ataka anti-tank missiles both
supplied by the Machinery Design Bureau based in the Moscow Region of Russia. Up to 16
anti-tank missiles can be mounted on the helicopter. Shturm is a short-range radio
command-guided missile. The Ataka missile's guidance is by narrow radar beam which has
proven robustness against hostile jamming and countermeasures. The maximum range of the
missile is 8 kilometres. In real combat situations over broken terrain the average target range
is between 3 and 6 kilometres. The target hit probability of the Ataka missile is higher than
0.96 at ranges 3 to 6 kilometres. The kill probability against heavily armoured targets is also
close to unity. The missile has a shaped charge warhead with a tandem charge for penetration
of 950 to 1000 mm thick homogeneous armour and also multilayer and explosive armour.

Air to air missiles

The helicopter can launch fire-and-forget air to air missiles with independent self homing
systems.

Unguided weapons

The helicopter can also carry four containers each with twenty 80 mm unguided rockets (total
eighty 80 mm rockets) or with five 122 mm rockets (total twenty 122 mm rockets). The
helicopter can alternatively carry containers with grenade launchers, 23 mm guns, 12.7 and
7.62 machine guns, aerial bombs and incendiary tanks.

Cannon

The helicopter is equipped with a turreted 30 mm cannon, the 2A42. The gun mount is
stabilised in two planes. A firing unit is installed between two faired cartridge housings
mounted directly on the gun carriage. The gun is fed selectively from the cartridge housings.
The firing calculator device provides high firing precision at all angles of rotation of the gun.
The weight of one round of ammunition is 1,000 grams. The cannon provides a muzzle velocity
of 1,000 metres per second.

Source-military.cz