Pakistan's navy and air force, in particular, are just as enthusiastic about zhi-12 as a little virgin who knows nothing about human affairs. When he sees a goddess of his dreams, he wants to die for each other.
There's no way. In addition to the excellent plateau capability, the zhi-12 helicopter also has a very strong sea and air mission execution capability.
Especially at sea, thanks to its lightweight fuselage design and powerful turboshaft engine, the zhi-12 can take off and land on a variety of ships.
For example, the US made kilin class missile destroyer equipped by the Pakistani Navy and the 21 type missile frigate just imported from the United Kingdom can easily take off, land or even park the zhi-12 helicopter on these ships.
This is a huge boost for the Pakistani Navy.
We should know that although Pakistan Navy attaches importance to the development of technology and equipment, due to its own financial resources, it has to make trade-offs in other aspects under the overall situation.
Because of this, the Pakistani Navy has focused on the construction of surface ships and underwater submarines. As for the equally important naval air force, it can only put it back.
It's a good thing to say that the combat aircraft with air cover, with the elite Pakistan Air Force providing cover, can also support a clear sky for Pakistan's surface ships.
But the special aircraft used in the sea is very scarce.
The biggest short board is the shipborne helicopter.
Now, Pakistan's five kilin class destroyers and six 21 type frigates are all surface ships capable of carrying shipborne helicopters.
How many helicopters does the Pakistani Navy have?
It's pitiful to say that there are only nine helicopters, of which the 8-ton "Sea King" helicopter accounts for one third and three. It is mainly used for anti submarine patrol and emergency rescue missions off the Pakistan naval base, but it can't carry out ocean going missions with the ship.
It's not that the Pakistani Navy doesn't want to, but that the displacement of the surface ships on hand is too small, and the rear take-off and landing deck and hangar are limited in size, so it can't carry the take-off and landing of the 8-ton large helicopter "Sea King".
The remaining six are Skylark III helicopters made in France, with a maximum take-off weight of less than 2 tons, belonging to the category of small helicopters, which can be carried by Pakistan's main surface ships.
However, due to the limited platform structure of skylark III helicopter, it is unable to carry advanced detection equipment and rescue equipment, which leads to the skylark III helicopter can only carry out specific tasks in specific sea areas under the command of surface ships.
For example, surface ships use Hull Sonar to detect suspicious submarines and guide Skylark III helicopters to carry anti submarine torpedoes to launch attacks in suspicious submarine areas.
For another example, in a certain sea area, a Skylark III helicopter went to the accident area under the guidance of the surface ship, and low altitude visual search and rescue.
In this case, the task execution ability of skylark III helicopter is very low, and the general daily work is not enough. Once encountering complex conditions, the skylark III helicopter will not be able to play.
One of the two helicopters is unable to board the ship, and the other is limited in mission level. Therefore, Pakistan Navy urgently needs a multi mission light helicopter with independent combat capability to make up for the lack of air power of surface ships nowadays.
For this reason, the Pakistani Navy is not without an idea. For example, when they introduced the British 21 missile frigate, they conducted a very detailed performance test on the "Bobcat" helicopter, which is also produced in the United Kingdom. They thought it was very good.
However, after the two sides entered into substantive negotiations, the unit price of 38 million US dollars still deterred the Pakistani Navy. We should know that the 21 frigate they imported is less than 50 million US dollars. Although it is second-hand, its performance is still very good, at least it is better than the Soviet made frigate in New Delhi in technical level.
As a result, a shipborne helicopter is almost equal to a surface ship, which is not cost-effective.
So the introduction of the "Bobcat" helicopter was delayed.
It was not until Pakistan's Navy saw the excellent capability of zhi-12 during the Karakoram Pass earthquake, and made a more in-depth test of zhi-12's maritime mission execution capability during its subsequent visit to China that it resolutely abandoned the British "Bobcat" and rushed to zhi-12.
The reason for this is very simple, mainly due to the excellent modular design of zhi-12.
As a shipborne helicopter, zhi-12 can be equipped with different mission modules according to different mission requirements, which can be roughly divided into four categories: maritime rescue module, anti submarine attack module, anti-ship strike module and maritime assault module.
The maritime rescue module is based on the basic model, with rescue sling, medical first-aid equipment and airborne search radar. It can carry out independent search and rescue tasks for about 3 hours within a radius of 150 km with the surface ship as the core. It can also cooperate with other platforms for three-dimensional rescue work.
Antisubmarine attack module, which is a comprehensive electronic search system with a set of sea search radar and a set of light spot detection system as the core on the basic model. At the same time, a hoisting active and passive reconnaissance sonar is equipped under the belly of the aircraft. With 12 sonar buoys at the tail of the aircraft and the electronic control equipment inside the aircraft, the antisubmarine attack can be carried out in the sea area with a radius of 200 km Search.Once the submarine's whereabouts are found, the four light anti submarine torpedoes carried by the submarine will be used for precision strike immediately.
The anti-ship attack module retains the integrated electronic search system of the anti submarine attack module. Instead of the anti submarine sonar search system and the anti submarine torpedo, the anti-ship attack module is replaced by a set of fire control and guidance system. In this way, with the four c-701 small anti-ship missiles attached, it can pose a fatal threat to small surface ships with displacement less than 1500 tons.
As for the final sea assault type, it is much simpler. Two machine gun racks are fixed on both sides of the body, and eight fully armed special forces are loaded. The ground to Air Radar blind area can be used for rapid assault penetration into the local coastal areas.
In order to facilitate the replacement and combination of various modules, Tengfei group has reserved many interfaces for the basic model of the zhi-12 helicopter. For example, the search radar under the nose can be installed smoothly by removing the cover plate and opening several fixed bayonets, and the special line reserved in advance inside the helicopter body can be connected with the console fixed in the engine room, so as to realize the sea access Radar search function.
based on this, whether it is anti ship or anti submarine, or sea assault and sea rescue, we need to see the specific needs of users. In a word, straight 12 is like a little girl who can be dressed arbitrarily, but it can be salt and sweet, and whatever she wants.
It's such an excellent shipboard helicopter. The unit price is only 12 million US dollars. Even with the corresponding module kit, it's only 18 million US dollars.
Compared with the British clearinghouse, the empty "Bobcat" basic model has both hardcover and luxury clothes. The Pakistani Navy can't help but find the Arab religious fund controlled by Maxim and apply for $100 million of special aid.
No way, can someone help pay, who use their own money!