Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 898 Military Change (Second update, please subscribe)

"...The Z-1 attack reconnaissance helicopter performed extremely well in Siam, especially the turboshaft engine, which is light and powerful. It was invented for helicopters..."

While Sun Delin was introducing the performance of the Z1 helicopter in Siam, Li Yian only occasionally glanced at the photos in his hand.

This is the world's first armed helicopter!

This has absolutely nothing to do with Li Yian; it is entirely the result of joint cooperation between enterprises and the military.

Even the turboshaft engine and its application in helicopters were independently developed by the company. Who would have thought that BMW had developed it as early as World War II and tried to install it on the Panther tank, and they even developed a prototype.

In Nanyang, those engineers conducted further research and development on it, and combined it with the jet engine technology from Britain, and finally designed the world's first aviation turboshaft engine, which Nanyang Aviation Industries used to design the Z-1 helicopter.

As a result, the military had a very creative idea. Not only did they install machine guns on the helicopters, but they also installed "Hellhound" anti-tank missiles.

"How did you come up with the idea of ​​installing anti-tank missiles on helicopters?"

Even when asking this question now, Li Yian was more amazed.

"Because of the experiment!"

Sun Delin introduced.

"We started training with the Cerberus missiles mounted on a Cessna C-170 propeller aircraft. The missile operator sat in the co-pilot's seat.

The Cessna C-170 is a primary trainer aircraft used in large quantities by the Air Force. Its maximum flight speed is only 230 kilometers per hour, and when launching missiles, it needs to maintain a low speed to facilitate the operator's guidance. However, after testing, we found that the aircraft platform is not suitable for launching the "Hellhound" missile. The aircraft cannot perform any maneuvers before the missile guidance is completed. In addition, the attack target needs to dive, and due to the limited guidance accuracy, the maximum range is only 3500 meters. Therefore, although the "Hellhound" missile successfully destroyed some targets when launched from the aircraft, during the test, we found that compared with fixed-wing aircraft, the helicopter platform can achieve better results. It happened that the performance of the Z1 helicopter was excellent, so we turned it into a launch platform and equipped it with bulletproof ceramic armor, four anti-tank missiles and a movable 7.62mm machine gun mount. Although the flight performance is slightly reduced due to the installation of armor, it can still meet basic needs..."

Although what Sun Delin said seemed simple, I don’t know how much thought the technicians put into it behind the simple words.

While Sun Delin was introducing the experimental process, Li Yian kept looking at the photos in his hands. Sometimes people's creativity is really endless, and it is really hard to imagine that these technicians had built the world's first armed helicopter without any reminder from the outside world.

And what about the Nanyang military?

The interest in armed helicopters is far greater than that of other countries. It is with their support that BMW will continue to develop new turboshaft engines, which have greater power and naturally pave the way for larger helicopters.

"Its performance in Siam was far beyond our expectations! The same is true for anti-tank missiles. The hit rate in actual combat is even higher than that in training!"

Looking at Sun Delin who looked a little excited, Li Yian smiled.

"So, you have decided to develop a dedicated attack helicopter?"

From this point of view, the military's intuition is still very sharp. They were able to discover the use of armed helicopters based on one combat experience, which is very commendable.

"Yes, sir. Compared to tanks, attack helicopters are more adapted to the terrain of the South Seas. They can attack over treetops anytime and anywhere. Unlike tanks, they are not limited by the terrain and may even get stuck in the mud. But they will not. They fly in the air. With missiles, they can even destroy tanks from a distance outside the tank's range..."

In fact, Sun Delin and other senior military officials who returned from the European battlefield were all tank fans and, of course, air force fans. They had witnessed the power displayed by powerful armored and air force forces. This is why they still maintained a large-scale armored force despite the special geographical environment of Nanyang.

But now, the emergence of attack helicopters has completely overturned their cognition, and their successful use in Siam has also allowed them to see new opportunities.

For military equipment, every innovation is a new opportunity, and the emergence of helicopters is also a military revolution.

It will greatly change the form of land warfare and push it to another level. It's a pity that in the future, these advanced equipment and new tactics can only be used in local wars.

"The defense equipment company has already started developing a new type of anti-tank missile. It has a longer range, greater power, and can carry more missiles. By then, attack helicopters equipped with anti-tank missiles and rockets may even replace tanks!"

While Sun Delin was speaking, Li Yian had already picked up a pen and was drawing a simple sketch on paper. Relying on the art function that was activated at some point, he quickly drew a sketch of an AH-1 armed helicopter. Then, he handed it to Sun Delin and said.

"We will develop an attack helicopter based on this concept,"

The moment he received the sketch, Sun Delin was stunned by this single-rotor, tail-rotor, tandem-type, two-seat armed helicopter. The narrow fuselage, the tandem two-person cockpit, the nose cannon, the short wings for weapons on both sides of the fuselage... Everything was beyond his imagination, but it looked so reasonable. From the intuition of a soldier, it can be seen that its narrow front can minimize the area of ​​​​being hit by bullets.

"Sir, this, this is your design?"

But in such a short period of time, you have actually designed an attack helicopter!

"It's just a conceptual sketch. We need not only a dedicated attack helicopter, but also a multi-purpose helicopter that can be used to transport troops and weapons and equipment, and can also be equipped with rocket launchers for attack. Well, it should be more widely used in the future in the security war in Siam."

He thought about it, drew a UH-1 diagram, and said.

"In order to save R&D costs, this general-purpose helicopter can use the same engine and transmission system as the attack aircraft, that is, the CT-200 turboshaft engine, transmission system, main tail rotor system, etc. that you mentioned earlier. It can not only reduce production costs, but also their parts are universal, which can also reduce the cost of use."

In another world, there was the UH-1 general-purpose helicopter. It was not until the outbreak of the Vietnam War that the U.S. Army urgently required the rapid provision of a high-speed, heavily armored, and heavily armed helicopter to provide escort for troop transport helicopters along the way or to provide air suppression firepower for infantry in advance.

Prior to this, Bell had begun to study the concept of a dedicated attack helicopter and had just launched a full-scale model. The concept model of this attack helicopter used the engine and transmission system of the "Huey".

What finally conquered the US military was not just its outstanding performance, but also the fact that it could share most of its accessories with the UH1 helicopter. Of course, good experience needs to be learned from.

"As for this attack helicopter...although it is a little smaller, its performance is still very good. We can further improve it and use it as a professional reconnaissance helicopter, and use it to cooperate with helicopters and general-purpose helicopters in combat."

Afterwards, Li Yian briefly talked about what he knew about the combat methods of the "Air Cavalry", which he actually learned mostly from film and television works.

However, even so, for this era, the way of calling the reconnaissance helicopter formation the "White Team", the attack helicopter formation the "Red Team", and the transport helicopter formation the "Blue Team", and then the three types of helicopter forces working together to carry out operations is still far ahead.

After all, many times, it often takes a long time of accumulation from the proposal of concept to its implementation, but now, under the guidance of Li Yian, Nanyang has completely jumped out of this stage.

After taking a look at Sun Delin who looked dumbfounded, Li Yian continued.

"Moreover, we can also sell this helicopter and anti-tank missile to them, let them gain experience on the battlefield, and then perfect our design, and use their combat experience to advertise our weapons."

In another world, why are American weapons selling well? Isn’t it because of good advertising? The advertising is created on the battlefield.

The best advertisement for a weapon is its effectiveness on the battlefield.

Li Yian continued.

"Just like the Siam Crisis, Nanyang advertised its own weapons. After the crisis, the overwhelming victories in many air battles have made the world take a new look at the F1 fighter. We can take this opportunity to sell our helicopters, anti-tank missiles and other weapons and equipment."

(End of this chapter)