Denel AH-2 Rooivalk

The Denel AH-2 Rooivalk is an attack helicopter of South African Air Force (SAAF, An acronym for South African Air Force).

Description
South Africa has shown a great capacity to develop weapons systems themselves thanks to the international arms embargo that has suffered during the 70s and 80s. With this the South African industry has grown so that today can be considered one of the poles of the planet's military development. The combat helicopter AH-2 Rooivalk was designed and developed by Denel, the leading aerospace industry in South Africa, under the request of the South African Air Force (SAAF) who realized the need for a dedicated attack helicopter. The bitter experience of suffering an arms embargo showed that the ideal would be the development of local helicopter instead of simply importing a ready-made aircraft. The Atlas, the predecessor of Denel, has assembled a prototype attack helicopter called the XH-1, based on the model Aluette III, but the model was less potent than ideal for the mission. Just another prototype, this time based on cell Puma transport helicopter, was built under the name of XTP-1, and subsequently renamed the XH-2. Currently the definitive name for the model of production was being AH-2 Rooivalk. Altogether 16 units were built only on the Rooivalk. The model has to be offered to England and even Brazil, but without success. The market for attack helicopters is relatively small and the models that tend to get some commercial success are usually produced by countries with an industry of more traditional weapons such as the United States and Russia. The Rooivalk is powered by two Turbomeca Makila 1K2 French turbines that produce power of 2301 shp each. This turbine is a version of the same turbine used in the Super Puma transport helicopter, which the Rooivalk drift. The Rooivalk can reach a top speed of 309 km / h, and therefore a bit faster than Apache, considered the best combat helicopter today.

Eletronics
The Rooivalk is equipped with an electronics suite that allows you to operate day and night and in all weather conditions, consisting of a multi-sensor turret in the nose of the helicopter called TDATS. In this system there is a FLIR (Foward Looking Infrared) or infrared vision display, a TV viewer for images in low light and a target designator / laser rangefinder for guiding weapons. Still speaking of avionics, the Rooivalk is equipped with a suite of communication system consists of a UHF / VHF and HF radio for voice communication and data. There is also a system of identification friend foe IFF installed. Full avionics suite to a GPS.

Armament
The armament of Rooivalk is directed toward missions and tactical air assault to destroy armored vehicles. For this is the main armament of the missile from South African Denel ZT-6 Mokopa used to destroy tanks. The Mokopa has a range of 8 km, the putting in is equal to the similar North American AGM-114 Hellfire, used in Apache. Interestingly Mokopa missile's warhead is double mounted in tandem (one behind the other) optimized for drilling the modern reactive armor (ERA) widely used by Russian armor and some Middle Eastern. The Mokopa is guided by laser semi-active, which requires that the helicopter or other element of the strike force illuminate the target with a laser designator during the entire course of ataque.O Rooivalk can use the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and HOT- 3 European, too, in place of Mokopa. To attack ground targets may be used unguided rocket launchers 70 mm. These launchers can be 36 or 72 rockets each, the latter being a great weapon saturation area. The Rooivalk can combat other helicopters using missile MBDA Mistral short-range guided to the heat and with a range of 6 km. In addition to these weapons we released, the Rooivalk has a fixed organic weapons. A cannon-caliber M-2 20 mm gas operated and 700 rounds of ammunition. This cannon fires at a rate of 740 rounds per minute and has the light armored troops and other enemy helicopter, its most likely targets.

Specifications

 * Propulsion: 2 motoresTurbomeca Makila 1K2 with power of 2301 shp each.
 * Maximum speed: 309 km / h
 * Cruising speed: 290 km / h
 * Range: 700 km
 * Vertical Rate of Climb: 798 m / min
 * Load factor: +3.5
 * Maximum altitude: 6000 m
 * Armament: A cannon 20mm F-2, ZT-6 missiles Denel Mokopa, AGM-114 Hellfire, HOT-3 and MBDA Mistral missiles against helicopters. Rocket launchers, 70 mm.