Anti Helicopter Mine - As if missiles and anti-aircraft weapons were not enough, helicopters began to face a new threat: the anti-helicopter mine.
No, these are not ordinary landmines buried in the ground, waiting for an unwary helicopter to land. They are actually sophisticated radar-controlled air defense weapons that have been developed by several countries, including Russia and Bulgaria.
Anti Helicopter Mine
And now the US military is worried enough about them to want some sort of countermeasure. In a new research proposal, titled "Anti-Helicopter Mine and Improvised Explosive Ordnance Countermeasures," the military compares the threat facing helicopters to that faced by infantry soldiers and IED vehicles. Just as buried explosives led the US military to develop anti-IED technology, such as jammers that disable the radio links that control the devices, the military now wants something similar to disable anti-helicopter mines as well as the regular IEDs used. in an anti-helicopter role. .
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Not that the US doesn't already have a lot of experience with anti-helicopter mines. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong used a variety of anti-helicopter booby traps, including pole-mounted explosives, which detonated when a helicopter landed. For their part, the Americans bombed the landing zones to detonate mines before the helicopters entered.
An Islamic terrorist group also released a video in 2013 of what appears to be an improvised anti-helicopter cluster mine. And, of course, machine guns and old-school RPGs have long been the archenemy of helicopters.
However, anti-helicopter mines built for this purpose are much more sophisticated and dangerous. The military specifically cites "the deployment of anti-helicopter mines by Russia and Bulgaria." Bulgaria, which appears to have developed such devices as early as the late 1990s, offers several mines such as the AHM-200, a 200-pound device that looks like a mortar tube mounted on a tripod. The mine, which is located on the surface rather than buried in the ground, has an acoustic sensor that arms the weapon when it picks up the sound of the helicopter up to 1,500 feet. At a distance of 500 feet, a Doppler radar tracks the target. When the helicopter reaches 300 feet, the mine detonates both an explosively shaped projectile and an explosive charge filled with steel balls.
A Russian news video from 2012 shows what a similar device looks like. A Russian expert in the video claims that anti-helicopter mines were developed because shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are ineffective against helicopters flying below 300 feet.
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The Army project will have three phases, starting with the identification of anti-helicopter mines and improvised explosive devices, their initiation and destruction mechanisms and how they are used. Eventually, a prototype will be developed, and then the Pentagon will decide to go ahead and build the system.
Interestingly, the US military's proposal offers no indication of what kind of defense it claims would stop anti-helicopter mines. It acknowledges that "rotor-wing aircraft have technical and operational vulnerabilities that include flying below 1000 feet above ground level (AGL), a unique set of audio signatures, as well as the operational requirement to land on short notice. on unsafe grounds."
Perhaps one approach would be to spoof the mine's sensors so that it detonates prematurely, or to mask the acoustic signature of a helicopter so that the mine doesn't recognize a helicopter as a helicopter.
Given the U.S. military's heavy reliance on helicopters, especially when IEDs make roads too dangerous for vehicles, anti-helicopter mines are bad news. The news will be even worse when insurgents and terrorists inevitably get their hands on them. But there is a silver lining: The military says it is "best to identify the best possible countermeasures before this emerging threat can adversely affect US and allied operations." This suggests that the Pentagon considers these mines an imminent danger, but that it has not yet affected US operations. Mines are usually associated with destroying ground targets, but helicopters will now have to watch out for innovative projectiles.
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Imagine a mine that can hit a flying target. It may sound like science fiction, but the anti-helicopter mine could soon be used to defend roads and military outposts against low-flying targets.
“It works in all weather conditions and in any environment. Thus, you can defend the shores and land routes, "said the creator of the weapon and CEO of the company FKP "GkNIPAS" - Vladimir Niyazov.
Mines are laid on the ground, so soldiers don't have to spend time digging holes. Each mine contains 12 explosives that are activated when an enemy helicopter comes within 100 meters.
"These mines have an acoustic system that detects the sound of the helicopter blades. When it flies at a certain distance, each mine activates, throwing 12 explosives into the sky and piercing everything in its path at a speed of two to three km/s," Niyazov added.
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He also said that friendly helicopters will be able to fly over the mines without activating them: “The minefield is activated and deactivated by an operator of a military base. Thus, once commanders are informed of the presence of friendly helicopters or UAVs in a "danger zone," the operator defuses the mines remotely.
Even so, experts believe that Russia will not use the weapon in its operations abroad, fearing the possibility of friendly fire.
"ISIS terrorists don't have helicopters, and their drones can be shot down by our army's portable air defense systems. So these mines will probably spend most of their time in storage," said Alexei Ramm, a military analyst at the Izvestia newspaper .
Meanwhile, Niyazov thinks that this innovation has export potential: "We have already met with military delegates from China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. But we will start negotiations only after Rosoboronexport completes all the formalities and gives us permission to sell these mines to Russia's foreign partners.
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