"Whirlwind" - a missile from the Russian anti-tank missile system (ATGM) 9K121 "Whirlwind" (according to the NATO classification - AT-16 Scallion), which has laser guidance. It is launched from ships, as well as from Ka-50, Ka-52 helicopters and Su-25 attack aircraft. It was first shown in 1992 at the Farnborough Air Show.
Development history
The Whirlwind complex was developed in the former Soviet Union as an analogue of the American ATGM AGM-114 Hellfire. Work began in 1980 and was carried out by Tula designers from KBP under the guidance of A. G. Shipunov. The first copies were delivered to the troops in 1985. What further fate did the Whirlwind rocket have? Tests of the complex on V-80 helicopters and Su-25T attack aircraft, conducted in 1986, confirmed its high efficiency. Subsequently, the complex underwent modernization, completed in 1990. However, due to the tense financial situation, only a small number of finished products were purchased for the Russian troops for testing purposes. Serial production began in 2014, and the first complexes were delivered to Russian aircraft at the end of 2015 to equip Ka-52 helicopters .
Anti-tank systems
Two variants of this anti-tank complex are known:
- 9K121 Whirlwind is an early version, the development of which was fully completed in 1997. What ammunition was equipped with this complex "Whirlwind"? The 9M127 missile with a firing range of up to 8 km was part of it. Its guaranteed armor penetration was 900 mm.
- 9K121 "Whirlwind-M" - a serial modified version. It includes the Vikhr-1 missile (standard designation is 9M127-1) with a firing range of up to 10 km, equipped with a tandem charge piercing armor up to 1200 mm.
Rocket striking basics
What are the features of ATGM "Whirlwind"? The missile complex is designed to destroy vital ground targets, including armored, equipped with primary or secondary explosive-reactive armor (dynamic protection). Almost all anti-tank munitions work on the basis of cumulative action, i.e., by piercing armor with a stream of hot metal. Explosive-reactive armor can be pierced only with a few hits in the same place. This principle is implemented in tandem ammunition, like the Whirlwind-1 rocket, in which there are two cumulative charges fired in quick succession. Without tandem charges, getting to the same place on the armor is almost impossible.
The composition of the ATGM "Whirlwind"
The Vikhr-1 missile is a warhead of the Vikhr-M anti-tank complex, which also includes the following components:
- launcher for aircraft (helicopters, aircraft) type APU-6 or APU-8;
- automatic system of review and aiming type I-251 "Shkval-M".
The Shkval-M automatic sighting system developed by the Zenit Krasnogorsk plant is equipped with a television and thermal imaging (infrared) aiming channels, a laser beam channel for rocket control, a laser range finder, an automatic target tracking unit, a digital computer and a two-plane missile stabilization system . The I-251 system provides target detection and identification during the day and night, automatic tracking of targets and guidance of missiles on them, and also provides accurate information for artillery and rocket fire.
Aiming technology
If the coordinates of the target are pre-recorded in the on-board digital computer complex (BTsVK) of the helicopter (airplane), in the memory of which the map of the flight area should be stored, then when approaching the target at a distance of 12-15 km, the Shkval-M system will automatically turn on. If the coordinates of the target are known only tentatively, the aiming system of the complex "Whirlwind-M" includes a pilot. She begins to scan the terrain on a television (or thermal imaging) channel, displaying its results on a television screen in the cabin.
After the appearance of the target on the television screen, the pilot switches on the maximum magnification mode, recognizes the target and marks the reticle on its image. After that, the Shkval-M system is transferred by the pilot to the auto tracking of the identified target. In this mode, the pilot must hold the helicopter in such a position with respect to the target that it is within the limits of the azimuth angle (up to ± 35 °) and elevation angle (from + 5 ° to -80 °) acceptable for tracking equipment. When the permitted firing range is reached, the Whirlwind anti-tank missile is automatically launched. For one target, you can simultaneously launch two missiles or fire up to 4 targets for half a minute.
Whirlwind rocket: characteristics
The missile is designed to destroy armored ground targets, including those equipped with primary or secondary explosive-reactive armor, at a distance of up to 8 km when firing from a helicopter and up to 10 km from an airplane in the daytime (up to 5 km at night), as well as for hitting air targets, provided that they are covered by air defense systems. It is equipped with both contact and non-contact fuses. The latter allows you to hit air targets when approaching them at a distance of up to 5 m.
The rocket’s flight speed is supersonic and reaches 610 m / s, so it travels a distance of 4 km in 9 s. At the same time, the ATGM of the AGM-114K Hellfire complex takes 15 seconds to cover this distance, since it flies at subsonic speed.
At an angle of encounter with an obstacle of 90 ° the rocket is guaranteed to break through a homogeneous steel armor 1000 mm thick.
Rocket design
The combat charge of the rocket is made in tandem scheme and spaced along its length. In front is the leading cumulative charge, behind which there is a drive of four aerodynamic rudders that can move out of the niches in the backward direction relative to the course of the rocket. Next is the second combined warhead, which has both cumulative and high-explosive fragmentation.
Behind the warhead there is fuel for the main engine and the solid-propellant engine itself with two nozzles directed at an angle to the axis of the rocket. Here, in the tail compartment of the rocket, there is an instrument container with control system equipment, as well as a laser light receiver.
The aerodynamic tail of the rocket is located in the back of the hull in the form of four pentagonal wings, clockwise bent (when viewed from the nose of the rocket), which are adjacent to the hull before launch (when inside the transport-launch container (TPK)) and then opened special mechanisms.
The presence of controlled rudder-wings in the front, as well as uncontrolled in the rear, allows us to classify the aerodynamic design of the rocket as a duck.
Operation of rocket mechanisms during launch and flight
It is transported in a plastic TPK reinforced with fiberglass, from which it starts under the action of a powder pressure accumulator. At startup, a small emission of burnt gases from the rear end of the TPK occurs. Immediately after exiting the launch container, wings extend and the rocket engine starts. The laser sight is located at the stern of the rocket, which tends to remain in the laser beam during the flight.
Aiming at the target with a laser beam is a guarantee of high-precision shooting, which does not decrease with increasing target range. Moreover, the radiation power of the laser sight is so low that it turns out to be an order of magnitude smaller than the threshold response power that foreign laser signaling systems have. This provides the utmost secrecy in the use of weapons. The Whirlwind missile is capable of destroying a moving small-sized tank target with a probability of 80%.