Attack Helicopters

[God Bless USA]

The helicopter would have to perform ground support, tank elimination, etc..  Now which one would you perfer?

[iluveagles]

Apache for obvious reasons.................cept I'll take an A-10 over a helo any day............

[tigershark]

I don't like polls too much:

The helicopter would have to perform ground support, tank elimination, etc.

All the types you listed can do that and most countries don't have large tank formations anymore so taking out tanks isn't as important as once was.  Overall performance, cost, weapons suite, counter measures, maintenance hours, hot and cold flying, data links, targeting radar, etc, mean much more then destroying tanks.

Types you listed:
Bell AH-1Z HueyCobra
AH-64D Longbow Apache
Both saw action

Boeing RAH-66 Comanche - I believe the project was canceled and was never produced.

Eurocopter Tiger - will see action soon

Agusta A 129 Mangusta - I don't think its been in combat but there is a chance it has, its been out for a while

Denel AH-2 Rooivalk - No sales yet and don't think South Africa use it in combat yet,

Kamov Ka-50 Hokum
Kamov Ka-52 Alligator - Either the Ka-52 or the Mi-28N according to some Russian web sites had four or five flights in the Chechen's conflict. For me difficult to prove (helicopter flights) and the Chechen's conflict in general little information was released about the air war part of the fighting.  If you ever find any please post it or PM me, thanks.
 

As you can see asking which is the best when only a handful has been in combat is difficult.  You left out the Mi-28N type which actually won the Russian choice for attack helicopter to replace the Mi-25 series.  But like most things Russian almost eight years and just this year a engine was chosen so going into full production is another matter.   

[iluveagles]

Out of all of them which have seen the most extensive combat op's?

The Longbow Apache(which is a damn good chopper), the Cobra, and the Huey(another damn good chopper).

Plus Russian helo's. The others are not extensively combat proven, the Comanche was canceled............

[God Bless USA]

With ground to air missles would the A10C Warhog be a better option?  I read a article which stated Russia thinks the SU-25 Frogfoot is less acceptable to ground to air missles (lower infer-red signature).  Does anyother country operate dedicated ground support aircraft?

[iluveagles]

In my opinion yes, the A-10 is a better option, but the plus about helo's is you can carry a good amount of munitions and you can fly around for a while and support an invasion at low level.

Define, dedicated ground support aircraft, because there really are very few that are truly dedicated to that role. The A-10 is even capable of attacking aerial targets.............everything seems to be Multirole these days..........

[tigershark]

iluveagles I agree the A-10 when it can be use is a better option.  The jet just keeps on ticking and with the newer upgrades will be around a little longer as well.  Both don't well in a SAM environment or even anti-aircraft guns but the A-10 can take a beaten and dish out a lot of hurt.  The big advance it has over helicopters besides armor is it speed but used as a attack jet role and the lack of speed hurts it.  The A-10 has a certain nitch or area it must stay in but in that role it performs very well.  Can't think of the name but I read a book years ago about A-10s in the first Gulf War, good reading. 

[iluveagles]

My thoughts exactly, the A-10 is just awesome at what it does, and you can't shoot it down.............. I'm convince that if you blew of an engine a wing and a half and most of the horizontal and vertical stabilizer it would still come home..........lmao 

[Gripen]

I know the Commanche was cancelled, but i thought it was a recon helicopter anyway, not a tank buster 

[tigershark]

Your right on the mark Gripen it was a recon helicopter by design but capable of carrying some anti-tank missiles.  A lot of money went into this design/project that at the end I think was basically a budget cut. To be honest I'm not strong in helicopter and maybe somebody else knows the finner details on why.  Maybe the task of a semi stealth armed scout helicopter didn't have a place in the US Army's future.

[RecceJet]

I know the Commanche was cancelled, but i thought it was a recon helicopter anyway, not a tank buster 

In a strict sense, the Australian Tiger helicopter is also predominantly a reconnaissance platform. It should actually be designated as RAH rather than ARH. Not sure if other countries intend on using it in the same way.

[iluveagles]

To me the Comanche just seemed like an X-plane for instance...........it really didn't have a place on the battlefield............other than the stealthiness, the Apache can do its job better if not much better than the Comanche, and it carries more weapons................