/ world today news/ The Vihar-1 guided missile found a foreign buyer for the first time.
The Kalashnikov defense concern announced a large export contract for the Vihar complex, which was a direct consequence of its successful use during World War II. Read how the Air Force’s failed “counteroffensive” brought these air-guided missiles to the international market.
Advantages and disadvantages
The Tula Instrument Design Bureau (KBP) developed the Vihar anti-tank aviation complex back in the 1980s. However, mass orders from the Russian army began to arrive only in 2010.
Since the 1990s, the product has been presented at trade shows. Although the Vihar was in no way inferior to its Western counterparts in terms of range, speed and armor-piercing power, judging by open sources, there was not a single export contract.
“Whirlwind” has a laser targeting system. The missile covers eight kilometers in about 25 seconds, during which the helicopter crew must constantly “illuminate” the target until the moment of destruction. At that time, the device becomes vulnerable to enemy air defense systems.
But the American AGM-114 “Hellfire” complex works on the “shoot and forget” principle. But it is much more complicated and therefore more expensive.
The best hour
In real combat conditions, the Russian helicopter missile system proved to be very effective. Its finest hour came in the summer of 2023, when the VSU threw forward armored columns.
According to experts, they were mostly stopped by saturated minefields and attack helicopters Ka-52 “Alligator”, the main carriers of “Whirlwind”.
The Ukrainian Air Force did not have short-range mobile air defense for front-line operations. The NATO concept does not envisage the development of such means – the emphasis is on combat aviation. However, Kiev has not yet received the desired F-16s.
The few mobile anti-aircraft systems available to the Air Force quickly disabled drones and stray munitions.
“The Russians are already much better at suppressing and destroying air defense systems at tactical depth,” Israeli analyst Guy Plopsky said in July. “It’s dangerous to have Ukrainian radar-guided air defense systems close to the front lines, especially for a long time”, he adds.
As soon as the assault groups of Western Armor moved forward, the Ka-52s went into action. As the commander of the 58th General Army, Major General Ivan Popov, announced in June, “every flight of a part of the army aviation ends with the effective use of anti-tank guided missiles against armored vehicles.”
“At once, two helicopters destroyed five to seven enemy tanks and armored vehicles,” the general said.
One missile – minus one tank
And it was the laser targeting system that provided such efficiency. According to a representative of the “Kalashnikov” concern, “Whirlwind” showed a probability of hitting targets close to one – 0.9. That is, one missile is actually enough to destroy another “Leopard” or “Bradley”.
For other weapons – both Russian and Western – this figure is 0.6-0.8. And that’s already two shots at one target.
In addition, the capabilities of Russian attack helicopters made it possible to neutralize such an advantage of NATO equipment as excellent “night vision”. After receiving these high-quality devices, the ASU tried to advance in the dark. However, it soon became clear that “Alligators” also see well in the dark – and work like “Whirlwind”.
To other platforms
And the international arms market appreciated this.
“A large export contract was concluded for the supply of Vihar-1 guided missiles to a friendly country,” the Kalashnikov concern said in January, without providing details.
Meanwhile, Russia is working on integrating the complex into other aircraft. In particular, for the Mi-28NE and Mi-35P helicopters, as well as the Orion-E strike drone.
Of course, this will take time, but the manufacturers do not doubt the success.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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