What is the domestic radar patrol helicopter capable ofThe processes of development of ship-based aircraft and helicopters taking place in the leading foreign countries of the world were studied very carefully in the Soviet Union.
This included the issues of creating deck-based aircraft systems for long-range radar detection and control (AWACS).
As a result, appreciating the advantages of aircraft and helicopters of this purpose, the command of the USSR Navy decided to keep up with the probable enemy in this part. And instructed to start work in this area, connecting specialized research institutes and enterprises of the military-industrial complex to them.
And if there were objective difficulties in the part concerning deck–based aircraft of this class, including the lack of carriers for aircraft carriers of suitable dimensions and displacement, then with regard to helicopters, domestic specialists had a significant head start.
As a result, in the early 1980s, it was decided that it was necessary to create a promising radar patrol complex based on a ship-based helicopter. The choice fell on the Kamov company's car – the Ka-29 deck transport and combat helicopter, originally bearing the designation Ka-252TB and created, in turn, on the basis of the Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopter.
Active work on a new rotorcraft, which received the designation Ka-252RLD (RLD - from "radar watch") at the stage of research work, and then renamed Ka–31, has been underway since 1985. And the following year, a preliminary design and a full-scale mock-up of the helicopter were approved.
THE "PARATROOPER" TURNS INTO A LOOKOUTAs part of the implementation of the program for the creation of a domestic radar patrol helicopter, two flight prototypes were built at the Ukhtomsky Helicopter Plant named after N.I. Kamov near Moscow, for which unfinished gliders of Ka-29 ship-based transport and combat helicopters were used.
One of the notable external differences between the Ka-31 and the basic Ka-29 is the additional fuel tanks in the elongated fuselage inflows behind the crew cabin.
The main task of the new aviation complex was long-range radar detection day and night in simple and difficult weather conditions of air, primarily high-speed low-flying targets (such as strike aircraft and anti-ship and cruise missiles), as well as various surface targets. Therefore, its main "weapon" was the specialized onboard radio engineering complex (RTK) E-801. Its purpose is to control the air and surface situation; detect low–flying air targets and surface objects, as well as measure their coordinates; determine the nationality of detected targets and direction finding sources of active interference.
The complex was created by specialists of the Gorky Research Institute of Radio Electronics (currently the Federal Research and Production Center "Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering" (FNPC NNIIRT) as part of the Concern of East Kazakhstan Region "Almaz-Antey") on the basis of a new radar station (radar) on solid-state elements, which operated in the decimeter wave range.
The rotating bulky antenna of this radar with a phased array, which provided a circular viewing sector, was placed under the fuselage of the car. In the non–working position, the antenna is folded, not protruding beyond the length of the landing gear struts, and in flight it is lowered. At the same time, in order to ensure the normal operation of the antenna, the main landing gear supports are pulled up, and the front supports are removed into special fairings along the flight. It is also worth noting that in an emergency situation, the antenna released into the working position can be quickly reset using the emergency compartment system by using a special pyrotechnism.
The RTK of the Ka-31 helicopter, according to information published in open sources, allows for the detection, capture and simultaneous tracking of up to 40 targets. "The onboard integrated complex, which includes a powerful all–round radar, automatically searches for targets, their state recognition, tracking and data transmission to ground and ship command posts," Grigory Kuznetsov notes in this regard the advantages of the rotary-wing patrol in the first volume of the fundamental work "Kamov Design Bureau: 50 years: 1948-1998".
The operation of the complex is fully automated: after turning it on, releasing the antenna and selecting the operating mode, the role of the pilot-navigator is only to monitor the operation of the equipment and monitor the targets on the indicator screen. At the same time, the built-in monitoring system allows you to search for a fault with a depth of up to a structurally replaceable unit, and to ensure the significant needs of the complex for electricity, a powerful auxiliary power plant was placed on the helicopter.
In turn, the modern flight and navigation complex Ka-31 provides stabilization of the helicopter flight with a rotating antenna. As well as its automated turn to a given course and output to the ship or to the airfield or to the point of making a decision on landing, maintaining the set parameters of the course and altitude, flying along a given route, automatic approach and hovering at a height of 25 m above the landing site, etc.
The helicopter is also equipped with a communications complex operating in several frequency bands and providing closed and open communication, as well as the transfer of the tactical situation from the RTK to command posts, etc.
WHEN POLITICS GETS INVOLVEDThe first prototype Ka-31 radar patrol helicopter was flown in 1987, after which it began testing.
At the Kumertau Aviation Production Association (currently the Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise (KumAPP) as part of the Russian Helicopters holding of Rostec State Corporation), designated for the serial production of a new helicopter, appropriate training has been started.
In 1991, stage "A" of the factory testing program was successfully completed. It seemed that a new domestic car, without exaggeration unique, which did not have, and still does not have worthy analogues in the world, opens up a great and bright future. However, as has happened many times before, politics intervened in the affairs of the military and developers.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the defense budget, coupled with the termination of the aircraft carrier shipbuilding program and the scrapping of almost all aircraft carriers available to the fleet, led to the fact that the Ka-31 was simply not in demand. Although the unique helicopter, it seems, could well find wide application in the Ground Forces. But those in the 1990s were also not up to him.
India was the first of the foreign buyers of the Ka-31 to use the machine from warships. Photo by Vladimir Karnozov On the other hand, it was completely irrational to abandon a program that was almost brought to its logical conclusion.
Therefore, after a program of testing and fine-tuning of all systems of the new aviation complex, which dragged on for several years due to significantly reduced funding, the Ka-31 radar patrol helicopter was still adopted by the Russian Navy in 1995. At that time, the work on the creation and refinement of the machine was led by Deputy Chief designer of the Kamov Design Bureau Lev Sverkanov.
However, the car was still not launched into a full-fledged series. Therefore, naval aviation for a long time had at its disposal only two Ka-31 helicopters, which were operated to the best of their abilities and capabilities of technology.
In fact, I restarted the program of the domestic radar patrol helicopter, as has happened more than once in our recent history, a foreign order.
DELHI AND BEIJING NEED "SHARP EYES"The Indian military was the first to step in.
In 1999, at the request of the Command of the Indian Naval Forces, Delhi signed a contract worth $ 207 million for the supply of nine Ka-31 helicopters in export configuration. They were planned to be included in the naval air group of a promising Indian aircraft carrier, created on the basis of the Russian heavy aircraft carrier (TAVKR) "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov", and today bearing the name "Vikramaditya". As a result, in Kumertau, they began, albeit in a small batch, but still serial production of this unique rotorcraft – a long-range patrol fleet.
The first helicopter was officially included in the combat composition of the naval aviation of the Indian Navy on May 16, 2001, and by the end of 2004, the Indian Navy had already received all the machines ordered from our aircraft manufacturers. Apparently, Indian sailors and naval pilots were satisfied with the capabilities and reliability of the Russian "all-seeing eye". Therefore, in 2009, a new contract was signed for five more helicopters of this type, the cost of each of which, according to the data given in the American weekly Defense News, amounted to $ 20 million.
At the same time, the media also reported that Indian specialists intend to increase the patrol time of the helicopter by equipping it with a refueling system in flight with a telescopic rod-fuel receiver. But it was supposed to use appropriately converted transport helicopters as tankers, which is very difficult to implement in practice: today, there are no such machines even in the armed forces of the leading countries of the world. Therefore, this idea, apparently, was not implemented in reality. At least, there was no information about the performance of such work on the Indian Ka-31.
Currently, there are 14 Ka-31 helicopters in the combat fleet of the Indian Navy, and in May 2019, Delhi announced its intention to purchase an additional 10 such vehicles to arm its second aircraft carrier. However, the contract for this transaction has not yet been signed, apparently.
The next foreign customer of Ka-31 helicopters was China, which, in the process of implementing an overambitious program for creating an ocean-going nuclear missile fleet, including powerful aircraft carrier forces and many combat surface ships of the main classes with the ability to carry deck helicopters, also had a need for long-range radar detection and ship-based control systems.
Naturally, the Chinese admirals considered and continue to consider the presence of deck-based aircraft of this class as a priority. But since certain difficulties arose with their creation (the same, by the way, as their Soviet colleagues had earlier), it is quite natural that the choice of the PLA Navy command initially fell on the radar patrol deck helicopters. And the latter at that time were actually only Russians.
As a result, Russia and China signed a contract for the supply of nine Ka-31 helicopters, the first of which the customer received in November 2010.
IN THE INTERESTS OF THE NAVY AND THE ARMYThe revenues received from export contracts, as well as the buildup of the Russian defense budget, led to the fact that work on the Ka-31 aviation complex gradually intensified in the interests of domestic customers.
Moreover, they turned around in two directions at once. Firstly, in the direction of modernization of the Ka-31 ship–based radar patrol helicopter, primarily by upgrading its specialized onboard radio engineering complex. Secondly, in the direction of creating a radar patrol helicopter in the interests of the Ground Forces, the main task of which was to be the reconnaissance of ground targets.
In the first case, a modernized Ka-31R ship-based radar patrol helicopter was created with an upgraded airborne radio-technical complex for monitoring the air situation. And in the second – the Ka-35 helicopter (the designations Ka-31SV, Ka-252SV and "product 23D2" are also given in open sources) with a radio-technical complex for reconnaissance of ground targets L-381.
The first Ka-31R (tail number "90", red) arrived at the 859th Aviation Training Center of the Russian Navy, located in Yeysk, on June 22, 2012. "Presumably, this is the first serial helicopter of this type built in Kumertau for the Russian navy," Andrei Khaustov noted in this regard in the article "I can see everything from above..." in the magazine "Aviation and Time" No. 6 for 2012. At the same time, he also pointed out that two months later a second helicopter of the same type (onboard "91" red) arrived in Yeysk. After that, both cars flew to the M.M. Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky near Moscow for testing.
In turn, the first prototype of the Ka-35 helicopter, developed by specialists of the Kamov company as part of the Gorkovchanin development work, as indicated in the mentioned article by Khaustov, was converted from the first prototype of the Ka-31 ship-based helicopter and began the flight test program in November 2004. The second prototype was already initially built under this program and entered testing in 2006.
According to the information cited with reference to the TASS news agency in the article "The Ka-35 radar patrol helicopter was adopted in Russia", posted on August 25, 2015 on the Lenta information resource.ru", the new helicopter complex of the Ka-35 radar patrol has already been adopted by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. A TASS source in the military-industrial complex also noted that "during the development of the Ka-31, a number of complex technical problems were solved, in particular, related to the circular rotation of a large-scale antenna."
FURTHER AND CLEARERDetailed tactical and technical characteristics of the radio engineering complex installed on the Ka-31 family helicopters available in the Russian Armed Forces are not disclosed by the developer and the customer for obvious reasons.
However, we have the opportunity to evaluate the capabilities of this "artificial eye" according to its export version E-801E. Data on the latter are given, in particular, in the fundamental work "Armament and equipment of the Russian Navy", published in 2019 in the publishing house "Studio Ethnika".
According to the information provided there, the E-801E radio engineering complex includes a two-coordinate pulse-Doppler radar of the decimeter wavelength range with a system of state identification of detected objects. The main antenna is a passive phased array antenna, and the antenna of the state recognition system is structurally combined with the main antenna in one container.
The survey of the surrounding space using the radar is carried out: in the horizontal plane – in a circle due to the mechanical rotation of the antenna with a frequency of six revolutions per minute, by the angle of the place (height) – using a specially formed beam of the antenna pattern. At the same time, the viewing area ranges from 7 to 260 km in range, and up to 3.5 km in height.
Radar information obtained during the operation of the E-801E complex is processed on board the carrier helicopter automatically, and the detected targets are taken for auto-tracking. The complex establishes their nationality, and also determines the coordinates and parameters of the target movement (course, speed, etc.). All data is automatically transmitted to the ship or ground command posts.
At the disposal of the helicopter crew is a modern complex of flight and navigation equipment, as well as a specialized display system with a color liquid crystal indicator and a specialized onboard electronic computer designed to display all radar and reference information. Radar information is displayed against the background of a digital terrain map, and for a more detailed analysis there is a microplane mode of the terrain. The rate of updating information is 10 seconds.
The radio engineering complex E-801E is characterized by high accuracy of detection of various targets. Thus, the accuracy of detecting air targets of the "fighter" type against the background of land and sea is 120-210 m, and a surface target of the "boat" type against the background of the sea surface and with sea waves up to five points is 260 m.
As indicated in the work of G.I. Kuznetsov "Kamov Design Bureau", if in the early version of the Ka-31 radio complex automatic tracking of up to 20 targets was provided simultaneously, then in the E-801E modification complex it is already possible to simultaneously accompany up to 40 targets.
The turn-on time of the radio complex is only five minutes, and it takes about 80 seconds to release and clean the antenna.
All this, as well as the possibility of using a helicopter from ships and land runways of limited dimensions, the high mobility of the machine and the accuracy of reaching the target allow the Ka-31 to carry out an operational solution to the task of monitoring the air and surface (ground) situation in the designated area. What is an important difference between a radar patrol helicopter and aircraft of a similar purpose. At the same time, any foreign analogues today are inferior to this domestic car in a number of important parameters.
Perhaps the availability of a sufficient number of such helicopters would contribute to a more successful solution of Russian military tasks during the current hostilities, especially at sea. And also when providing air and missile defense of important military, state and industrial facilities.
Such flying radars could also make an important contribution to improving the effectiveness of the hunt for the launchers of the Tochka-U missile systems, multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and enemy armored vehicles. This hunt could be organized by analogy with the hunt for enemy Scuds and military columns, in which a French helicopter with an Orchid radio complex took an active part during Operation Desert Storm (this is described in detail in the article "The All- seeing Eye of the Fleet ", "HBO", 02/18/12).
However, as they say, history does not know the subjunctive mood. However, it is still advisable to study its lessons carefully, then adjusting your future actions accordingly.
Vladimir Shcherbakov
Deputy Executive Editor of HBOVladimir Leonidovich Shcherbakov is a military expert, journalist, and historian.
