Why doesn't the US operate a helicopter like the MI-26? There's the CH-53E, but it can only lift less than half of what the MI-26.
>>64416784The only reason this helicopter was even built was to transport fragile nuclear missile components to silos very remote areas where they were no roads.There aren't many applications where giant heavy-lift helicopters are strictly necessary.
>>64416784Chinook and Sea Stallion gud enouf, but also there's no need for it. American logistics are great and big enough that what they need more is flexible aircrafts, not bigger ones.
>>64416793Some chinooks got shot down in the middle east, they had to bring in a civilian MI-26 to get them out of there as they had nothing that could lift them.
It has the Chinook. Any bigger heavy lift is done by fixed wing.
>>64416784The US doesn't need to sacrifice its soldiers to minefields
>>64416802It was 1 Chinook and it only happened once. One small incident like that is not enough to press a maintenance queen like the MI-26 into service.
>>64416840>maintenance queenThat's not even mentioning the initial costs of developing, testing, and building something like this.That's a whole fuck-ton of money, and skilled labor hours, that can be better spent on something more useful.
>>64416840It happened twice but apparently only cost $300k to lease. Pocket change compared to a new Chinook.
>>64416784There is no reason to put all your eggs in one basket. The Chechens downed one in 2002 and that killed over 100 people. Literally more fatalities than if a full C-130 was shot down.
>>64416784Why have one huge thing, when multiple thing can work just as well?
>>64416784The US can afford to fly two CH-53s
>>64416784Idk but it would be kino
>>64416870>Chechens downed one in 2002>killed over 100 peoplehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash>Occupants 147>Fatalities 127>Survivors 20What kind of russian clown car magic did they manage to cram in 147 people into a Mi-26?
>>64416957the ass is in the ass, you understand
>>64416957They were pressed into cubes (transportation pose) before being pressed into cubes (final disposition)
>>644167843 shill threads up because of picrel
>>64416957It's just that fucking big.
>>64416957Big boy
helicopters were a psyop, like the space program.pretty soon china will claim to build one the size of an aircraft carrier or whatever.
>>64416870>>64416957Best part of that incident is that it crashed on minefield right next to Vatnigger base. Fuck load of 'em died to their own mines.
>>64417008>packed nut to butt with people in this thing before getting shot down and landing in a minefieldnightmarish
>>64417188The lucky ones died while the bird was still in the air.
>>64416856>That's a whole fuck-ton of money, and skilled labor hours, that can be better spent on something more useful.Like Lada up-armoring
>>64417068Mi-2 looks so fucking funny I'll never get over it.Also not having the hip for the full mil lifecycle is inexcusable
>>64416802A CH-53 can lift a CH-47.https://youtu.be/wVs2Vqgswx8They needed an MI-26 because of the altitude at that specific crash site. A helicopters lifting capacity decreases with altitude.
>>64416784Goat helicopter
>>64416784did you know that 1 in 10 of these were already destroyed by crashing? russian helicopters are deathtraps but their heavy lift helicopters take this to an exponent.
>>64416824Damn, beat me to it
>>64416784Because aside from very specific niche cases anywhere you can safely bring in an Mi-26, you could also probably get a C-130 in after a landing strip has been bulldozered.
>>64416957>>64418028What were they doing loading that many soldiers into a single helicopter? Surely they could have done it in two lifts or allocated additional aircraft.
>>64416784Because in most of Siberia it's impossible to transport anything except by air and America doesn't have any analogous locations. Maybe Alaska but that's a fraction of the land area.
>>64416784This is a good thread to ask a question I have had for some time. What the fuck is going on with the procurement of the King Stallion?
>>64416784Because the US can build airfields at will.
>>64416992it is literally just a fucking refinery, why the fuck do they do this? meanwhile wumaos awake spamming a billion "CHINA CLAIMS" threads too
>>64416784Because the BMP-2 weighs about 14 tons, but the Bradley weighs about 30 tons.The MI-26 is already pushing the limits of what's realistically achievable for a helicopter, but we'd need a helicopter twice the size to accomplish the same task. At that point, you'd be running into issues of whether a rotor could be kept stiff enough to avoid it drooping down and striking the tail, while also needing such a large area of clear, level ground that much of the mobility/flexibility advantage of using a helicopter in the first place would be lost.
>>64416784I don't understand why the Soviets sometimes designed some of these gargantuan pieces of equipment when their entire design logic was to make shit loads of cheap stuff.
>>64418381Strict top-down planning. It's not a very coherent or effective system for any sector, including military procurement.
>>64417188>nuts to butts no, anon that is the Western method. The Russian method is to transport in an organized cube formation where the ass is in fact inside the ass.>>64417008No but seriously, spacious as that is by helicopter standards, that does not look like it has space for ~150 people
>>64418319Because they've already suffered enough disruption their natural gas supply that several TPPs in russia are having to go back to coal firing. It's not just a refinery, it's the biggest gas processing facility in the world and produces 10% of russian domestic consumption.
>>64418402But I get the logic behind the 160(BONE but commie). I just find it ironic that the western powers usually focus on making reliable pieces of equipment that could do basically the same job, if a bit less effectively for an overall increase in survivability.I don't know if my ESL is making it clear but it's like the Sherman Vs Tiger debate. A tiger could kill a Sherman, but it was expensive and finicky and the Sherman could do the same while being cheaper and reliable. Or how the Soviets focused on making those big hovercraft and loading them with assloads of guns and stuff while the Americans chose to deploy multiple less armed ones
>>64418319It's the single biggest gas-processing plant in all of Russia, and the Khazakhs confirmed that the Russians requested all gas pumps across the border leading to it be shut down.
>>64418418I was going to say I'd expect if there's one important industrial complex you think they'd have good AA cover for, it'd be Giant Retarded Achilles Heel Gas Plant but fuck it. Fuck this I don't want to
>>64418183>What were they doingURAAAAA!!!!I will also accept;Sending in the Veh Deh Veh
>>64416802Much like the An-225, it's much easier to just let someone else eat the cost of operating something like that and just rent it when you need it.
>>64418431It seems most of the time they did this it was paradoxically, to compensate for not being able afford or support spamming something more modest in a certain niche.See: the Kirovs
>>64418381You should see some of the proposals that never left the design table.
>>64416784We were looking into superheavy lift helicopters during the Cold War, but the closest we came to building one was the XCH-62 which never flew (except for the time the fuselage was moved by Chinook). It got cancelled while the prototype was still under construction because of a fundamental lack of need for a helicopter capable of carrying a 22-ton CONEX box.
>>64420290
>>64420296
>>64420290The XCH-62 was the Heavy Lift Helicopter. Now the VERY Heavy Lift Helicopter program was really something
>>64420305That the program that gave us the Skycrane?
>>64416802Now let's say the MI-26 gets shot down. Is Russia dumb for not operating the kind of chopper than can pick up an MI-26?
>>64420305>>64420365Why is Sikorskyface so distinctive?They both look like mutant Blackhawks even though they came before it
>>64416992This is literally just a thread about heavy lift helos.>>64418381If the US was run like the USSR was, you'd see more batshit insane stuff too. It's a combination of being a dictatorship and not really needing to worry about private business costs. Could also just be some poor needing to justify his job by creating something for a reallllly specific use case lol.
>>64420365PURE SEXOOOOOOOOOO
>>64416784
>>64420290Love this thing. Someone saw Thunderbird 2 and was like "we need that"
>>64420365>the brutalist helicopter>not soviet or bongWeird world.
>>64421387Early US rotary aviation was a wild time.
>>64420329It came after the Skycrane and was going to be much, much larger.
>>64421425My favorite is the Mohave because it became semi-official practice to paint the front of the engine housing so it looked like googly eyes.
>>64421833Because how could you not?
>>64421838Just look at this Rakata-ass mfer.
>>64418233Like, how they just signed a new contract for 99 more of them them? The Marine's current operations plan requires a ton of airlifting equipment around the Pacific so it makes sense to me
>>64416957Mi-26 is bigger than a 737, Anon.
>>64416793this thing dropped us diesal at remote outposts in Afghanistan. Pretty cool heli.
>>64421425The artillery helicopter rabbit hole is a fun one.And they kept trying to make the concept work for a shockingly long time
>>64425302Oops
>>64416784Because helicopters have an annoying tendency to crash and something that big's just putting all your eggs in one basked.>That time an entire company's worth of soldiers were killed because of one Chechen with an Igla and a dream
>>64425351
>>64426389
>>64425351>>64426389>>64426391Good luck counter artillering that shit. :^)
>>64420268Is that an entire SAM battery?
>>64429041it's RAAM battery
>>64420365Much smaller than I thought it would be when I saw one in person. A lot of military aircraft are.
>>64416957>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash>The interior of the helicopter flooded with fuel and its jammed doors could not be opened.[2] Only the crew of five and 29 passengers managed to escape through the small cockpit exit hatch. Fourteen of the survivors died over the next few days from severe burns.[7]Jesus.
>>64420290for scale.
>>64421833>the roflcopter doesnt exi-
>>64429599
>>64429405Look at the bright side, many of them aren't pestering Dombas
>>64418381They use choppers for a lot of civil engineering projects that would be supplied via road in more developed countries.Russia is so big and barren it's easier that fly materials to a remote construction site than build a road big enough to transport then and maintain that road though rasputitsa.Choppers are also used a lot in the artic and antarctic for the same reason.
>>64429578>TipjetsRIP but also hearing saved
>>64421425>tfw your ejector seat doesn't turn into a tiny rube Goldberg gyrocopter
>>64421387The British were considering making something similar but it wasn't to be
>>64435459Westland Westminster got as far as flight.Tube frame with a skin made it easily modified.
>>64418381propaganda. >Ours is bigger, faster, carries more, etc.
>>64420290>It got cancelled while the prototype was still under construction because of a fundamental lack of need for a helicopter capable of carrying a 22-ton CONEX box.A heavy lift heli like the Mi-26 or the Xch-62 would have been most welcome in Afghanistan because high altitude drastically reduces helicopter carrying capability.
>>64429041Yes, including the associated radars.
>>64425351>>64426389>>64426391It really needs a pair of howitzers so the torque cancels out.
>>64438238>pairYou are like little baby
>>64417068I usedTo fly around Iraq in an Mi-17, it felt like a pretty husky boy compared to a Blackhawk.
>>64417209Have a ten and an eight just for fun.
>>64416793>where they were no roads.*where
>>64438263That pair of howitzers is made to fire while attached to the Chinook. After landing, not as exciting as it could be.
