Armed weapons are an indispensable weapon in modern warfare, and they can perform a variety of tasks such as reconnaissance, strike, and support. At present, there are three main heavy armed forces in the world: the American AH-64 Apache, the Russian Mi-28 Havoc and the Ka-52 Alligator. Among them, the Ka-52 Alligator is significantly different from the other two in that it uses a coaxial twin-rotor design that does not require a tail rotor to balance the rotors' anti-torsional moment. This design has its own advantages and disadvantages, and has been subject to a lot of controversy for a long time.
Recently, on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, a Ka-52 Alligator armed *** did not crash after accidentally losing its vertical tail, but continued to fly and land safely. This incident has attracted attention and made people revisit the advantages and disadvantages of the coaxial twin-rotor design. In contrast, if the armament *** of the conventional layout loses its tail rotor, it will lose control and it will be difficult to survive. This is because the tail rotor is used to counteract the anti-torsional moment generated by the main rotor, and if there is no tail rotor, ** will rotate with the rotation of the main rotor and cannot fly stably. In the case of a coaxial twin-rotor design, since the two sets of rotors rotate in opposite directions, their anti-torsional moments can cancel each other out, so there is no need for a tail rotor and less reliance on the tail fin. In this way, even if the tail is damaged, it will not affect the flight attitude of ***.
Another advantage of the coaxial twin-rotor design is that it can shorten the length of the fuselage and improve the fitability, that is, it can be parked and transported in a smaller space. For example, Russia's Golden Eagle UAV is an unmanned UAV with a coaxial twin-rotor design, which can load two in one van. In addition, the coaxial twin-rotor design can also be equipped with a propulsion propeller in the tail to increase the flight speed and cruise efficiency. Of course, the coaxial twin-rotor design also has its drawbacks, mainly the paddle problem, that is, two sets of rotors may collide with each other when maneuvering at high speeds, causing catastrophic consequences. Therefore, there are currently only two types of coaxial twin-rotor armament*** KA-50 and K-52.
However, as times have changed, so has the way in which armed *** is used. During the Cold War, armed forces mainly relied on machine guns and close-range missiles to attack, which required strong mobility and cannon firing range. And in today's era, armed *** faces more air defense threats, including various field air defense systems and portable anti-aircraft missiles. Therefore, arming *** requires long-range launch of anti-tank missiles to avoid entering the enemy's air defense range. This requires the armed *** to have stronger search and radar capabilities, as well as greater payload and armor capabilities. In this case, the coaxial twin-rotor design allows for the installation of a more powerful radar due to the large diameter of the nose, and the upper limit of power can be increased due to the small diameter of the rotors, which increases the take-off weight, which are its advantages. And its maneuverability is a little worse, and it is not too much of a problem, because the armed *** is now more like a low-altitude attack aircraft, and there is no need for a large maneuver.
To sum up, the coaxial twin-rotor design is a new type of armed design that adapts to the modern battlefield, and it has its own advantages and disadvantages, but on the whole, it may have more advantages than the conventional layout of the armed world. Of course, this is not to say that the armament of the conventional layout is useless, they also have their own characteristics and advantages, but in different situations, different armaments need to be chosen to perform the task.