The LAH-E43 "Tiger" is a Naval based lightweight attack helicopter. It is capable of undertaking a wide range of combat missions, including armed reconnaissance and surveillance, anti-tank and close air support, escort and protection of friendly assets; and can operate during day or night in all-weather conditions, and has been designed to include operations in the aftermath of nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare. The Tiger was specifically designed to be used in the maritime environment, able to operate from the decks of ships and during extreme weather conditions. Amongst the Tiger's notable qualities, it possesses very high levels of agility, much of which is attributed to the design of its 13-meter four-bladed hinge less main rotor; the Tiger can perform full loops and negative g maneuvers. Power is provided by a pair of FADEC-controlled MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390 turbo shaft engines.
The chopper has a tandem-seat 'glass cockpit' and is operated by a two-man crew; the pilot is placed in the forward position, with the gunner seated behind. Either of the crew members can manage the weapon systems or the primary flight controls, switching roles if necessitated; in addition to flying the aircraft, the Tiger's pilot would typically be in control of the self-defense systems and communications, as well as some secondary weapons functions. While some of the weapons use dedicated control interfaces, such as the anti-tank Trigat missile, air-to-air weapons can be managed via controls on both sets of collective and cyclic sticks.
Crew new to the Tiger should expect to undergo substantial retraining due to the differences from older platforms, particularly in higher workload management and the additional capabilities afforded by the type; one major change from preceding attack helicopters is a far greater degree of operational autonomy. According to Andrew Warner, chief test pilot during the Tiger's development, it is "the easiest-handling aircraft I have ever flown".
Design and Overview
Despite being designated as a light attack helicopter, the concept of Tiger had no intentions of under sizing and underweighting it. Every saved gram on the airframe meant one extra gram of fuel or ordnance which could be used against the enemy. Much of the airframe was already planned with carbonfibre reinforced composite materials. Composite construction is a generic term to describe any building construction involving multiple dissimilar materials; in this case carbon-fiber reinforced polymers are used. CFRPs are comprised of a polymer, in this case epoxy, which is a thermosetting polymer formed from the reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener", is reinforced with fibers of carbon which give the material it's strength. CFRPs have an extremely high strength to weight ratio which makes them ideal for use on aircraft.
Carbonfibers in this particular matrix are woven into a tight grid which partially resembles chainmail. These fiber matrixes are then used to reinforce the polymer (in this case epoxy) to make it a viable alternative to other metals, the same strengths for a much lighter weight. The downside of CFRP's is that they can be extremely expensive to replace and require much more maintenance than more typical aircraft materials such as aluminum would. Therefore, these CFRP's have been made into panel forms allowing them to be easily removed and replaced should they be damaged, as well as being covered by a layer of the outer aluminum.
Al-Li or Aluminum-Lithium alloy was also used extensively as a cover for the body. Lithium is the least dense elemental metal, much less dense than aluminum which is in itself less dense than most other metals, therefore when the two are alloyed together, the density and weight of the resulting material is less than that of the alloy while being stiffer at the same time and more resistant to strain. Al-Li was a perfect choice to act as a cover for the damage and maintenance-prone CFRP's which are laid under it.
Titanium armor plating is used around the most vulnerable parts of the helicopter’s airframe, particularly around the engines and transmission as well as the undersides and surroundings of the cockpit.
In order to suppress the immense heat created by the pair of engines, the interior of the engine nozzles are lined with a carbon ceramic lining to absorb the heat created and prevent it from heating up the metal lining on the outside. As a partial turbofan effect, air is sucked in through the intake of the engine, bypassing the turbine and mixing with the exhaust gases to reduce their temperature.
The chopper has a tandem-seat 'glass cockpit' and is operated by a two-man crew; the pilot is placed in the forward position, with the gunner seated behind. Either of the crew members can manage the weapon systems or the primary flight controls, switching roles if necessitated; in addition to flying the aircraft, the Tiger's pilot would typically be in control of the self-defense systems and communications, as well as some secondary weapons functions. While some of the weapons use dedicated control interfaces, such as the anti-tank Trigat missile, air-to-air weapons can be managed via controls on both sets of collective and cyclic sticks.
Crew new to the Tiger should expect to undergo substantial retraining due to the differences from older platforms, particularly in higher workload management and the additional capabilities afforded by the type; one major change from preceding attack helicopters is a far greater degree of operational autonomy. According to Andrew Warner, chief test pilot during the Tiger's development, it is "the easiest-handling aircraft I have ever flown".
Design and Overview
Despite being designated as a light attack helicopter, the concept of Tiger had no intentions of under sizing and underweighting it. Every saved gram on the airframe meant one extra gram of fuel or ordnance which could be used against the enemy. Much of the airframe was already planned with carbonfibre reinforced composite materials. Composite construction is a generic term to describe any building construction involving multiple dissimilar materials; in this case carbon-fiber reinforced polymers are used. CFRPs are comprised of a polymer, in this case epoxy, which is a thermosetting polymer formed from the reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener", is reinforced with fibers of carbon which give the material it's strength. CFRPs have an extremely high strength to weight ratio which makes them ideal for use on aircraft.
Carbonfibers in this particular matrix are woven into a tight grid which partially resembles chainmail. These fiber matrixes are then used to reinforce the polymer (in this case epoxy) to make it a viable alternative to other metals, the same strengths for a much lighter weight. The downside of CFRP's is that they can be extremely expensive to replace and require much more maintenance than more typical aircraft materials such as aluminum would. Therefore, these CFRP's have been made into panel forms allowing them to be easily removed and replaced should they be damaged, as well as being covered by a layer of the outer aluminum.
Al-Li or Aluminum-Lithium alloy was also used extensively as a cover for the body. Lithium is the least dense elemental metal, much less dense than aluminum which is in itself less dense than most other metals, therefore when the two are alloyed together, the density and weight of the resulting material is less than that of the alloy while being stiffer at the same time and more resistant to strain. Al-Li was a perfect choice to act as a cover for the damage and maintenance-prone CFRP's which are laid under it.
Titanium armor plating is used around the most vulnerable parts of the helicopter’s airframe, particularly around the engines and transmission as well as the undersides and surroundings of the cockpit.
In order to suppress the immense heat created by the pair of engines, the interior of the engine nozzles are lined with a carbon ceramic lining to absorb the heat created and prevent it from heating up the metal lining on the outside. As a partial turbofan effect, air is sucked in through the intake of the engine, bypassing the turbine and mixing with the exhaust gases to reduce their temperature.
Tiger cruising over the snowy landscape of Eastern Panzermmee.
The finishing touches to the airframe are made with radar-resistant material to thinly veil the exterior of the cockpit. This material gives an effect similar to iron ball paint. It contains tiny fibers coated with carbonyl iron or ferrite. Radar waves induce molecular oscillations from the alternating magnetic field in this paint, which leads to conversion of the radar energy into heat. The heat is then transferred to the aircraft and dissipated. These fibers are so small, if one were to run their hand over the exterior paneling, they would not detect a change in smoothness. Unlike the spheres, these fibers are much less susceptible to damage.
The Tiger does not adopt a low RCS airframe due to the problems with observation posed by the co-axial rotor set up. Noting that the effects created by these rotors would ruin any chance the Tiger had of achieving radar invisibility, designers saw little reason to waste their time trying to reduce the signature of the remainder of the airframe. To this end, designers instead optimized the exterior for outright performance as well as ease of maintenance.
The frontal aspect is the only part of the airframe which has been designed to partially reduce its radar cross signature, with a low-observability shape characterized by creased edges rather than the smooth lines which ape the rear of the aircraft. As designers assumed that the Tiger would hover behind allied lines to engage enemy armor from a long range, there became no need to consider optimizing the rear of the aircraft to work against radar.
This considered the clean exterior of the Tiger offers a much better aerodynamic shape than most other attack helicopters, which is partially to blame for its ability to reach much higher speeds than other co-axial designs.
The stub wings that serve as racks for ordnance mounted externally produce a lift force of 80kN each when the helicopter reaches speeds of 300km/h although these do not have control surfaces. The lift produced by these can be cancelled out if small spoilers on the rear of the wings are activated.
Propulsion
The Tiger employs a four blade main rotor and a four blade tail rotor. The four blade design was selected due to its superior lift and noise suppressing ability. The blades slice cleanly through the air, instead of hammering it like older helicopters, such as the Western Apache. This greatly reduces noise and boost fuel efficiency, by allowing the rotors to turn at a slower speed.
The Tiger also has an 'auto yaw' feature, keeping the aircraft straight without the crew members needing to keep their foot on the rudder constantly.
Thrust is provided by two MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390 turboshafts mounted on either side of the fuselage, with heat suppressing devices to control heat emissions. The engines are rated at 1950kw each, providing an enormous amount of power for lift.
The cruise speed is 250km/h, and the maximum speed possible is 300kmh. Pilots are never to exceed 350kmh. These comparatively high speeds are made possible by a low drag airframe, and advanced rotor technology.
Armament and Defense
The Tiger employs Active Radar Homing missiles as its primary weapon for anti-armor. Active radar homing is a missile guidance method in which a guided missile contains a radar transceiver and the electronics necessary for it to find and track its target autonomously. Active radar homing is rarely employed as the only guidance method of a missile. It is most often used during the terminal phase of the engagement, mainly because since the radar transceiver has to be small enough to fit inside a missile and has to be powered from batteries, therefore having a relatively low Effective Radiated Power, its range is limited. To overcome this, most such missiles use a combination of command guidance with an inertial navigation system in order to fly from the launch point until the target is close enough to be detected and tracked by the missile. The missile therefore requires guidance updates via a datalink from the launching platform up until this point, in case the target is maneuvering, otherwise the missile may get to the projected interception point and find that the target is not there.
The Tiger also employs general purpose unguided or laser guided rockets, which can either be high explosive or firebird rockets, which explode in mid-flight and unleash a rain of tungsten darts upon the enemy. Either choice of rocket is capable of wiping out enemy infantry or armor, however, firebirds are more suited to the former, while high explosive is designed for the latter. Laser guided rockets require the co-pilot gunner to put the cross hair on the target, unguided requires the pilot to point the helicopter in the direction of the target. Indicators on the HUD show when a target is in-line with the rockets.
The GIAT 30 Chain Gun is the Area Weapon System on the Tiger. The GIAT is mounted in the lower section of the chain gun turret. It uses a 2.8 kW electric motor to load 30 mm linkless ammunition at a rate of 725 shots per minute. The gun has a positive cook-off safety (open bolt clearing), and double ram prevention; it can be slaved to the eye of the pilot or co-pilot gunner to fire on the target that the crew member is looking at. This is done by motion sensors.
The Tiger is most notable for its two storage bays mounted into the fuselage of the helicopter. These bays can be configured to hold several different kinds of ordnance, ranging from laser guided missiles to gravity bombs. Each bay can mount four guided missiles, seventy rockets, or a 1000kg bomb. When possible, the Tiger should carry ordnance internally as this reduces the frontal RCS and also the amount of drag on the airframe.
Pilots seat of the Tigers cockpit.
Ordnance that doesn’t fit within the bays can be mounted on the external stub-wings which also have four hard points apiece. The two center-most hard points have a capacity for 1,000kg of ordnance each, the third hard point from fuselage is rated at 750kg and finally, the missile rack on the outer of the wing, designed to hold two short range air-to-air missiles has a rating of 200kg.
Avionics
A ETS or Enemy Tracking Software is the avionic tool which pilots will most heavily rely on when they are fighting in combat. The ETS is made up of several stabilized electro-optical sensors, a laser rangefinder and laser target designator. This allows the ETS to serve a powerful telescope to ensure that pilots can see the target, accurately determine the range to the target, and then paint the target with a laser beam to serve as a point to guide missiles. The ETS assembly can rotate +/- 140 degrees in azimuth, +60/-90 degrees in elevation, giving the pilots an excellent view of the surroundings, and can even allow the pilots to see what is below the aircraft. The movements of SFRA can be slaved to the head movements of the helicopter crew to point in the direction that their head is facing. Images from the camera to be projected onto the crew helmet-mounted optical sights, overlaid upon their view of the cockpit and battle space. SFRA also contains a thermal imaging infrared camera and a full color daylight television camera, with 1280x1040 resolution.
The SS09 is an Active Scan Radar which serves as a Fire Control Radar designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and velocity) to the firing system of the helicopter in order to calculate a firing solution. The SS09 offers a track while scan capability which allows it to fire on some targets while simultaneously tracking others. The SS09 Active Scan radar is designed for strike operations and features a low-observable, active-aperture, electronically-scanned array that can track multiple targets in any weather, including storms. It changes electromagnetic frequencies at more than 1,000 times per second to greatly reduce the chance of being intercepted by an enemy aircraft. If the radar happens to be spotted, it can then focus its radar emissions on an enemy aircraft, to overload enemy sensors and thus jamming the enemy radar. This radar fitted to the Tiger employs a very erratic search pattern made possible by the enormous computing power at the disposal of the crew which naturally makes it even harder to track. The SS09 was designed with the Low Probability of Intercept theorem as paramount with a strong emphasis on the lowest possible observability to other aircraft or other systems. Unlike many other radar systems, the SS and SE series of radar have very few moving parts and are much less likely to malfunction in the air than other radar systems employed by other aircraft.
An AESA or Active Electronically Scanned Array radar system represents the forefront of modern radar technology. These radars are deceptively hard to intercept because they will change their frequency with every pulse at up to 1000 times per second. Since the AESA can change its frequency with every pulse, and generally does so using a pseudo-random sequence, integrating over time does not help pull the signal out of the background noise. Nor does the AESA have any sort of fixed pulse repetition frequency, which can also be varied and thus hide any periodic brightening across the entire spectrum.
Since an AESA changes its operating frequency with every pulse, and spreads the frequencies across a wide band even in a single pulse, jammers are much less effective. Although it is possible to send out broadband white noise against all the possible frequencies, this means the amount of energy being sent at any one frequency is much lower, reducing its effectiveness. Moreover, AESAs can be switched to a receive-only mode, and use the jamming signals as a powerful source to track its source, something that required a separate receiver in older platforms.
AESAs are so much more difficult to detect, and so much more useful in receiving signals from the targets, that they can broadcast continually and still have a very low chance of being detected. This allows the radar system to generate far more data than if it is being used only periodically, greatly improving overall system effectiveness. The radar utilizes a separate transmitter and receiver module for each of the antenna's radiating elements. Making up the array of the AESA radar are over 5000 15cm long individual transmit and receive modules. Each tiny TRM weighs in at just 50 grams, yet still contains a power output of six watts apiece, a relatively high amount. To remove the high amounts of heat generated by the AESA, the array is liquid cooled and mounted in a light weight polymer for support.
Adding to the powerful Avionics array is the Questria 3 Network function which allows the aircraft to connect to and share information gathered from other aircraft in the area. The Questria Network is essentially a secure satellite connection for which data, in simplified form, is transmitted between two or more aircraft and is theoretically capable of linking the entire military of a nation. This means that even though only one helicopter has a lock on a target, any other helicopters in range of the target will also be able to engage even if they do not have a radar lock. The sheer power and capability of the SS09 means that it can scan and track almost any aerial or ground target no matter the size of the enemy's radar cross section. From a distance of 300km, the SS09 can successfully detect a target which has a radar cross section of roughly five square meters and can detect a target with a cross section of less than 10 square centimeters from twenty kilometers away.
Specifications
General:
- Crew: 2
- Length: 14.08 m fuselage (46 ft 2 in)
- Rotor diameter: 13.00 m (42 ft 8 in)
- Height: 3.83 m (12 ft 7 in)
- Empty weight: 3,060 kg (6,750 lb)
- Max. takeoff weight: 6,000 kg (13,000 lb)
- Powerplant: 2 × MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390 turboshafts
- Internal fuel capacity: 1,080 kg (2,380 lb)
- Maximum speed: 315 km/h(170 knots - 196 mph)
- Range: 1,000km
- Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
- Rate of climb: 10.7 m/s (2,105 ft/min)
- Guns:
- 1× 30 mm (1.18 in) GIAT 30 cannon in chin turret, with up to 450 rounds.
- On each of its two inner hardpoints and two outer hardpoints the Tiger can carry a combination of the following weapons:
- Inner hardpoints:
- 1x 20 mm (0.787 in) autocannon pods
- 22x 68 mm (2.68 in) SNEB unguided rockets in a pod
- 19x 70 mm (2.75 in) Hydra 70 unguided rockets in a pod
- 4x AGM-114 Hellfire missiles
- 4x Spike-ER missiles
- Outer hardpoints:
- 2x Mistral air-to-air missiles
- 12x 68 mm (2.68 in) SNEB unguided rockets in a pod
- 7x 70 mm (2.75 in) Hydra 70 unguided rockets in a pod