Tanks, as soon as they first appeared on the battlefield, had a tremendous impact on all military thought of that time. Anti-tank rifles and special ammunition instantly appeared , regimental artillery was undergoing a rebirth.
Today, "tank fear" is no longer manifested in such a striking form, because the troops have at their disposal a lot of effective tools that help to effectively deal with enemy armored vehicles. For example, the Whirlwind-1 guided missile belongs to those.
Basic information
The development of the rocket began in the early 80s of the last century. Initially, it was intended to equip the Ka-50 and Su-25T helicopters . The latter was a modification of the famous Rook, designed specifically to combat the heavy armored vehicles of a potential enemy.
Layout Difficulties
The developers immediately faced a severe restriction in diameter, since it was necessary to place at least 12 on the Ka-50 pylons, and at least 16 missiles on the Su-25T suspensions. It is precisely because of this that the Vikhr-1 guided missile is distinguished by a record elongated hull. This not only allowed “squeezing” into the desired diameter, but also ensured the maximum possible range and flight speed, since the aerodynamic characteristics of such a scheme are the most optimal.
A rocket was made according to the “duck” constructive scheme, its wings in the stowed position are folded. To ensure the most stable directional stability, the designers "awarded" her ability to rotate longitudinally in flight.
Design Features
In the front of the case, a compartment with a tandem warhead, as well as “wings” hidden in niches, that is, stabilizers of course stability, is traditionally located. In addition, there is a non-contact fuse, which was used in the design to increase the effectiveness of the missile for its possible use on enemy air targets. The entire middle part is occupied by a simple fragmentation-tandem warhead.
The rest of the volume is occupied by a solid propellant marching engine with two cone-shaped nozzles slightly deflected to the sides. At the very end of the tail compartment is a variety of equipment that serves to aim the missile at the target.
Stowed storage
As we said, stabilizers located in the bow are responsible for running stability. There are four of them, they form an X-shaped projection. To ensure longitudinal rotation in flight, the designers gave them a slight twist in a clockwise direction. The Vikhr-1 guided missile can only be stored in a transport container. Warranty - not more than ten years, subject to all conditions.
Adoption and first tests
The adoption of these weapons took place relatively recently, in 1985. The tests for the first time in conditions as close as possible to the military were carried out in 1986, when the Vortices fired from the side of the Mi-28 helicopter and Su-25T attack aircraft. It was the attack aircraft, which showed the ability to overcome the layered air defense of a conditional enemy, that showed particularly high efficiency.
Simply put, it was proved that the Rooks can successfully attack tank columns of a conditional enemy on the march, causing serious damage to them. What are the main characteristics of the Whirlwind-1? TTX missiles are as follows:
- Length - 2.75 m.
- Case diameter - 152 mm.
- The weight of the rocket (together with the shipping container) is 59 kg.
- The maximum speed is 610 m / s.
- The launch height is from 4 to 4000 meters.
- The launch range is from 400 meters to 10 kilometers.
- The maximum flight time to the target is up to 28 seconds.
Further development of the concept
In 1990, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Vikhr-1 M guided missile, which has impressive versatility, was adopted. It was supposed to be used not only for ground, but also for air, surface, and other types of targets, including the accumulation of enemy manpower. Unlike its predecessor, the rocket was made completely autonomous, using the most advanced and sophisticated electronic filling.
Thanks to this, helicopters and attack aircraft equipped with this type of weapon can efficiently and in the shortest possible time carry out a very wide range of tasks. Because of this, the "anti-tank" Vortex-1 missile is, in fact, wide-profile and fully universal. Today, Kalashnikov Concern OJSC, located in the city of Izhevsk, Udmurtia, is responsible for the development and production.
Important features of the Whirlwind family of missiles
Distinctive features of missiles of the latest generations are the following features:
- The long flight range, combined with excellent aerodynamics and hypersonic speed, provide a high probability of combat survivability even when overcoming a layered air defense of a conventional enemy.
- The supersonic flight speed also allows you to simultaneously attack multiple targets, providing increased survivability of the aircraft or carrier helicopter. Simply put, the enemy is not up to them.
- An automatic laser beam guidance system allows even small targets to be hit with a guarantee.
- Excellent protection from probable enemy EW stations, which again increases the likelihood of successfully overcoming the layered air defense.
- The widest range of targets hit, up to large surface ships and even submarines in the water position.
The order of the combat use of missiles
The pilot, approaching the place of probable deployment of the enemy (approximately 10-15 kilometers before him) must activate the system of scanning the terrain "Shkval-M". In the case when the coordinates of the probable target were entered in advance, the system is activated automatically, without human intervention.
After the target is detected, the pilot must identify it using visual and technical means of identification. He needs to combine the markings of the target and the sight so that the first occupies at least ¾ of the control display. After that, the automation itself goes into the tracking mode of the intended target. A rocket can only be launched if the pilot has reached the maximum possible range of destruction.
In addition, the pilot is responsible for preventing a strong deviation of the target from the azimuth captured by the automatic tracking equipment, since, otherwise, it is impossible to guarantee a successful launch.
Features of combat use
However, you should not consider the local automation "stupid." Specialists of JSC Concern Kalashnikov significantly improved it. The equipment is quite capable of leading the target for some time even after it lost sight of it (some object appeared between the attack aircraft and the tank). If nevertheless there was a failure of automatic tracking, the pilot had to re-capture it in manual mode.
As we already said, the rocket was launched only after reaching a normal distance, as well as with confident holding of the object by the rocket automation. In the new varieties, the Whirlwind-1 complex is capable of simultaneously holding and tracking up to four targets with firing missiles at them for about 30 seconds. It is believed that the probability of damage to even a small-sized object is at least 0.8.
To expand the range of combat use, today, missiles with a thermobaric and high-explosive fragmentation warhead have been developed, designed specifically to work on large concentrations of enemy manpower and equipment. Due to this, the Whirlwind-1 supersonic rocket becomes even more universal.
Assault "specialization"
Despite the fact that over the entire period of operation of the rocket, there have been many attempts to adapt it to ground-based missile systems, practice has proven that the most justified way to use them is to launch combat helicopters and attack aircraft from the side.
However, today there are still complexes that are designed for installation on lightly armored vehicles and even jeeps. Their creation is a merit of Kalashnikov Concern OJSC. ” According to military experts, there is nothing of the kind in the arsenal of our army, since the Kornet complex performs much better with such goals.
Perspectives of the complex
Due to the fact that this type of weapon can be used for ground, surface and air targets, the speed of which does not exceed 800 km / h, and also taking into account the existing developments on unification with ground-based missile complexes, the prospects for deliveries of the Vortex look quite attractive to those countries whose relief favors the use of the complex as air defense.
In addition, the Vikhr-1 ATGM is very popular in the Arab countries, as they are interested in buying multifunctional and reliable weapons.