Attack Helicopter Challenge

[jjx indoweeb]

Kampfhubschrauber 87 Drathaar

The Kampfhubschrauber 87 "Drathaar" is a twin-engined attack helicopter developed and manufactured by the Trager aircraft manufacture company, Mann-Halber Drehflüglerwerke.

Conceived in the 1970s as a heavily armed and armored attack helicopter able to neutralize whole tank columns, development began in 1978 and finished in 1990, with the first models being accepted into service in 1992.
The aircraft is regarded as one of the most advanced attack helicopters up to the present day, with exceptional flexibility in terms of configurations and operations, and reliability in harsh conditions.
Although it matured too late to see combat during the invasion of Vimola, the type were proficiently used by the Kambers Republic during the 2021 Azeri war.

The Drathaar is the pillar of Trager air support strategy, projected to stay in service well beyond the 2030s.

Drathaar B : Tragen Air Support

Developed to supplement the Kampfhubschrauber 2 Mastiff, the Drathaar is equipped with the heavy armament of a long barreled 3,7cm MK 76 revolver cannon, and 6 hardpoints capable of carrying 800kg loads each.
For an attack helicopter it was relatively well armed, on paper a single Drathaar could slow down an entire mechanized infantry battalion.

The first batch of Drathaars were mostly assigned to Luftwaffe units, with only a few assigned to Bodentruppe aviation corps units for direct air support.


Over time developments of tactics proved that a Mastiff regiment is more or less capable of supporting army ground units, and so the Drathaar regiment was disbanded and transferred to the Luftwaffe.

Drathaar B : Foreign Exports

With growing hostilities all over the world during the early 2000s, demand of military equipments were higher than ever.
Many air forces sought to procure newer aircraft and the Drathaar was definitely a hot commodity.


The Kambers Air Force were one of the few foreign nations that got their hands on a full spec Drathaar.
Other foreign operators include :
Vimola - 12 units (Drathaar C)
Buitenzorg - 4 units (Drathaar B)
Flenia - 4 units (Drathaar C)
Savonia - 12 units (Drathaar B)

Drathaar F : Modernization

With the new era of combat fast approaching, many improvements were made to maintain the Drathaar's role as an apex predator.


The Drathaar F introduced many improvements such as radar and infrared missile warning systems, electronic and active countermeasures, datalink technology, modernized optics, and a radar system that can track many targets at once.

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Sidenote : i didnt put a lot of thought during write up so it might be sloppy.....

[Charguizard]

Westland Wizard

So what if you turned the Westminster into a gunship?

A brief timeline:
1957:
-Duncan Sandy tragically dies of Ligma, wounds sustained in Norway in 1940 are blamed for his condition. Replaced by Harold Watkinson, who upon reading his predecessor notes considers them quite silly and tosses them into the bin.
1958:
- First flight of the Westland Westminster prototype.
1959:
- UK Continental Shelf Act passed.
1960:
- Viking Gas Field discovered in the North Sea.
- Bristow and BEA Helicopters buy 4 Westminsters each, they reject the Rotodyne as too noisy and voluminous.
1961:
- Rotodyne is adopted by the RN in its Tyne engined version for shore and carrier operations.
1964:
- BP discovers Forties Oil Field.
- Civilian Westminster sales increase to 51.
- British Army adopts the Westminster, demonstrates to Australian Army.
- Bristol Helicopters folds into Fairey Aviation, Saunders Roe into Westland.
1965:
- US Army adopts Rotodyne Z, as Kaman UH-44 Mohican, goes to Vietnam.
- Australian Army takes Westminster to Vietnam, it is later modded into a gunship.
-Orange William repurposed as helicopter weapon.
1966:
- Australian enthusiasm lead to the Westland/CAC Woomera, a dedicated conversion that integrated the Malkara missile.
1968:
-Good performance of Woomera gunship and appearance of T-64 prompts Westland to begin in-house development of dedicated attack helicopter integrating the Orange William, now Arrow Mk.I, named Westland Wizard AHR.1.
1970:
-Westland Wizard adopted by the British Army in its AHR.2 version with the Ku-band Arrow Mk.II fully integrated.

Crew consists of pilot in the rear seat, gunner in the front seat, flight engineer in a station behind the canopy and crew chief/loadmaster in the passenger compartment. This last crewmember could man an L111 .50 machine gun firing from the rear hatch.


The AHR.2 was deployed to West Germany and was armed with an Oerlikon KCA 30mm cannon, this alone means the helicopter outguns all IFVs of the era. External storages include 68mm SNEB rocket pods, 229mm Quickfire rocket pods and the Arrow Mk.II beam riding missile. An early alternative to the unreliable Arrow was the AS.12, which was also integrated. A small Ku band radar inside the nose cone guides the missile. The gunner points the radar beam through a binocular sight, which the missile follows through four small antennae on the rear of the aft fins. Guidance was affected by weather, distance and jamming and accuracy was mediocre beyond 1500m. The Quickfire rocket however was plenty enough to kill armoured vehicles and for some time it was considered the main anti-tank weapon. XV213 here served as support for the BAOR and is seen with a full 8 man section in the passenger compartment. A fixed FLIR/LLTV above the turbine intakes provides both gunner and pilot with a limited night combat capability.



The immense Wizard, for all its impressive firepower, high speed and surprising agility (for a department store building) was a hard sell, and the Kingdom of Jordan was the only foreign customer, buying 24 in 1976. The Australians were satisfied with their Westminster gunship conversions. The Jordanians were, however, not impressed at all by the Arrow, and chose to procure AS.12s instead, which were still very much overkill against tanks of the era. They served until 1994.



The Wizard first went into battle in 1984, when they were hastily shipped to Hong Kong just before handover negotiations broke down for good. This example is a late model AHR.7, upgraded with defensive countermeasures and IR suppressors. The top FLIR/LLTV was exchanged for a multimode X-band radar, and a turret containing a laser rangefinder/designator and an IR sight took the previous radar's place on the nose. AGM-65Bs were quickly shipped from the US, integration having already been achieved beforehand despite no rounds having been procured. This example also carries two SNEB pods and AGM-45 anti-radiation missiles. "Big Slurp" was disabled by surface fire while attacking landing craft and crashed inside Hong Kong city, all crew and Paras miraculously surviving the event.

[Gollevainen]

This might honestly be one of the most impressive challenges yet in terms of results. Like, wow, the level of most entries is amazing.

Mainstream FD subject have usually done this, but I agree, this might be the on top of even those. Its like a two-month worth of meme-challenge in uninteresting subject before this had led pressure building up and now it comes to fruition

[Victoria]

In 1999, with ever-growing tensions between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, West Germany began a program to develop a new autonomous drone to supplement and eventually replace the now-aging MBB Bo 105 in the light attack and reconnaissance role, and to supplement the future "Tiger" attack helicopter, despite significant protest from the Green Party on increased spending and arming of an unmanned vehicle.

As such, a challenge was put out for the production of a light UAV designed around carrying a 30mm autocannon and LAU-61 pods so as to effectively destroy light Soviet formations, while the future mainstay attack helicopter would destroy Soviet tank columns.

After serious competition from many groups based around the world, a joint venture between MBB, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon won out, named the Bo 125. It was accepted into service with the German Army after trials in 2001, and the German Navy later that year, and eventually accepted into service with the U.S. Navy in 2006 while searching for a replacement for the RQ-2 Pioneer, despite protest over cost issues and buying a mostly foreign-made aircraft.

The initial prototype presented by MBB had serious stability issues while landing, due to the far back position of the landing struts, leading to an eventual redesign in the version accepted into service.

Once accepted into service the Bo 125 was outfitted with its main armament, a LAU-61 pod on each side along with a 30mm autocannon.



Later in life, the Bo 125 received an upgrade to its internal hardware and its software, leading to the Bo 125B, which has seen limited service in the German Army, the German Navy has yet to receive its upgraded version, with Israel noting interest in buying a limited number of modified Bo 125Bs in the future.


The Bo 125 saw significant export to quite a few nations, with South Korea, Japan, the United States (Designated the MQ-10 Erne), France, and Mexico eventually buying into the program, with South Korea and Mexico seeking to replace their Bo 105s, France seeking to in conflicts where the deployment of a full-scale attack helicopter may be too much, but conventional drones do not have space for handling and with its navy on long-range deployments, with the United States and Japan searching for an autonomous scout vehicle to be used on board their ships.

The Bo 125 has seen successful service around the world with only minor issues relating to software and emissions surfacing throughout its lifespan, with potential for future sale still on the table to nations around the globe such as Israel or Britain, the Bo 125 has become a staple in the arsenal of the free world, though a lesser-known one.

[Kiwi Imperialist]

Polls Now Open
No further entries will be accepted for the Attack Helicopter Challenge. Members of the Shipbucket community can now rate each entry here.

A poll with options for the next challenge is also open. The three options (all SB scale) are:
1. Liberty Ship
2. Hospital Ship
3. Victorian Passenger Ship

Both polls will run until the 24th of February, ending at 23:59 (UTC-12).
Countdown Timer

[heuhen]

I find it funny, that my bucket passed

[Rainmaker]

It's going to be tough to rank all these entries - this challenge really has produced some of the most interesting and unique designs that we've seen in any challenge thus far.

There is great work here from all the contributors, especially those new artists who are submitting a design in a challenge for the first time. I hope this level of participation will spill over to other sections of the 'bucket.

[Charguizard]

Agreed, the enthusiasm has been tremendous
I'm writing some little notes on each entry to share but there's so much to talk about its a bit overwhelming

[Colosseum]

Great work all, another highly successful challenge in the books and also great work to Kiwi who as usual has done a fantastic job administrating!

[Kiwi Imperialist]

The community poll for the Attack Helicopter Challenge is now closed. 29 people responded before the deadline, a figure one greater than the number of participants. As other people have noted, this challenge was quite popular. We had great deal of variety, with entries ranging from drones to worms. Everyone who participated deserves a round of applause for their enthusiasm. The people who responded to the poll are also deserving of our thanks.



The top three scores were quite close. First place goes to Soode and their GHK-38 Wolverine, which achieved 506 points. Congratulations! Soode also received the highest drawing quality score, which is no surprise. I think most people were excited to see a cutaway and I am glad the additional effort was made. In second place with 502 points is jjxindoweeb and their Kampfhubschrauber 87 Drathaar. The shading and detail of this entry is simply exquisite. It is a shame we did not get a top view. Third place goes to Charguizard and the Westland Wizard which received 497 points. Great work! Both Soode and Charguizard share the highest score in the Design Quality category.



The Hospital Ship Challenge is now open for anyone interested.