electronic warfare self-protection of battlefield helicopters - Aaltodoc

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3 THE OPERATIONAL SETTING
3.1 Helicopters and armed conflicts
3.1.1 Development of battlefield helicopters
Helicopters have been used for military purposes since WW II. Knowingly the first
attempt to arm helicopters was made by the Germans in 1944, when a machine gun
was mounted in the nose of Fa-223 “Drache” helicopters [Eve83a]. Helicopters were
used in counterinsurgency operations by the British in Malaya from 1950 onwards
[All93 p.129, Dun88 p.12]. In the Korean War helicopters were used largely for
search and rescue (SAR), combat SAR (CSAR), and casualty evacuation
(CASEVAC); but also for transporting men and matériel [Dun88 p.10]. The French
routinely armed helicopters during the 1954-1962 conflict in Algeria, and the
dedicated attack helicopter made its debut when the AH-1G Huey Cobra entered
service in Vietnam in 1967. [Koc00a, Thi00 pp.6-10, Tol73 p.144] The Vietnam War
taught many valuable lessons, but at a cost of over 2,500 helicopters lost to enemy
action [Gun98 p.170, Hal00 p.32]. Since the RAH-66 Comanche program was
canceled early in 2004 the most original rotorcraft program today is the American
V22 tilt-wing aircraft, which also is surrounded by controversy and delays. Another
unique solution is the Russian Ka-50/52 coaxial-rotor helicopter, which has been
delayed due to funding problems.
3.1.2 Strengths of helicopters
Both transport and attack helicopters have characteristics that set them apart from
fixed-wing aircraft. Howze [How79] argues for battlefield helicopters using
experience from World War II: “As has been said a thousand times, there are two
main elements of military strength in the land battle: mobility and firepower. We
cannot be deficient in either, and nothing else—absolutely nothing else—affords the
battlefield mobility of the helicopter”. Helicopters open more fully the third
dimension—air—to army operations. The ability to self-deploy to a conflict area is
also an advantage over e.g. the main battle tank (MBT). Attack helicopters cost less
than fixed wing counterparts, they can operate without the infrastructure of an
airfield, they can deploy forward with ground forces, and being dedicated to
combined-arms ground battle mission they can be counted upon to provide support to
ground troops whenever and wherever required [Kha99]. A strength of attack
helicopters on the urban battlefield lies in their ability to use precision engagements
to destroy selective targets with minimal collateral damages [Jon96]. In the