“A link of Ka-52 helicopters, during fire support of troops advancing from hover mode with the Whirlwind anti-tank missile system, destroyed enemy tanks without entering the enemy air defense attack zone at a distance of more than 7. “A thousand meters,” the Russian military department said in a statement.
The Vikhr complex (according to NATO codification Scallion – Green Onion) was developed in the 1980s to arm attack aircraft and attack helicopters. However, it was not originally included in the series.
Serial production of the “Vikhr-M” modification began in 2013. The development of the Tula enterprise NPO “Tochnost” was embodied in the Izhevsk concern “Kalashnikov”. According to open data, the production contract amounted to 13 billion rubles. Since 2015, the complex is in service with the Russian army.
ATGM is designed to destroy armored vehicles and low-speed air targets. Vikhr missiles can hit targets at a distance of up to 10 km. Their speed is over 600 m/s.
In April 2016, the general director of the Kalashnikov concern said that the production of guided missiles for Alexei Krivoruchko (from 2018 to the present, he serves as Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, manages the issues of military and technical support). Hurricane is “the largest export and domestic aspect of the concern’s manufacturing activity.
In August 2021, the Kalashnikov press service announced the possibility of using guided missiles of the Vikhr complex on Orion type unmanned aerial vehicles.
“This high-precision aviation munition implements the principle of ‘fire and forget’. It is enough for an operator or pilot to capture a target, press the start button, and then the rocket may not follow its target or flight, ”military expert Alexander Khokhlov told socialbites.ca. – Missiles independently hold and hit the specified object, everything happens in fully automatic mode. These missiles are used to destroy various targets. Whirlwind has supersonic speed, it can be used not only against mobile ground or surface targets such as tanks and armored personnel carriers, but also against helicopters or light aircraft.”
The specialist noted that a distinctive feature of the use of the Vikhr-M complex is the extremely short flight time of a supersonic missile and high noise immunity of the control system, which ensures the survival of an airship in a duel battle with the enemy. air defense systems.
“The missile’s supersonic speed helps reduce the carrier’s vulnerability during attack and allows you to hit several targets at once. The possibility of accurately hitting a small target is ensured by the use of an automatic target tracking system and a high-precision laser beam control system for the I-251 Shkval missile,” To the Army Aviation Flight Personnel of the Ministry of Defense socialbites.ca Russian Federation, retired colonel Konstantin Surikov – In conditions of optical and radio interference on the modern battlefield, the control system has complete noise immunity. The tank has no chance against Whirlwind. Dynamic armor does not help. This type of protection works in the case of the use of portable anti-tank systems, but it does not have time to work here – the missile is very fast.At the same time, it can be launched beyond the limits of destruction of air defense and missile defense systems.
Surikov added that the Vikhr complex is not the only weapon for attack helicopters.
“On the same Ka-52, in addition to the standard 30-mm aircraft gun, there are six fixed points on which unguided aircraft missiles, aerial bombs, cannon containers, anti-tank missile systems can be installed.
It all depends on the nature of the tasks performed, in this case, the use of Vikhr missiles was due to the need to hit a target at long range – such exercises were previously practiced at training grounds and in a real combat situation. Syria,” Surikov recalled.
So, in May 2017, the Russian Ministry of Defense published a video about the destruction of Islamist equipment in Syria, southeast of Palmyra. The equipment was attacked by Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters, which also used the Vikhr complex.
Source: Gazeta
