The Origins and Utilities of Helicopters in a Combat Role Essay

Introduction

In the 1930s, there were no computers. Combat faced the challenge of making a lift from the ground since it required the helicopters to exact very high piston energy (Droff, 2017). The piston engine helicopters historically faced the challenge of making an emergency uplift. The horizontal turbines created a problem whenever the main rotor was to rest on the top of the airframe. An incredible weight was being added to the challenging situations amid causing the need to change an angle of drive-by 90 degrees. The 1st Calvary division helicopter was not efficient for military purposes. Later, the Bell OH-13S Sioux, Hell UH-1 Iroquois, and gunship UH-1B were modified to incorporate specific modifications as supported by other Army helicopters (Ference, 2002).

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The Historical Challenges for Helicopters in Combat and the Possible Efforts to Overcome the Battlefield Challenges

Combat helicopters experienced various challenges before case scenarios enabled the development and enhancements to set their pace. Technologies came up which allowed Apache Attack Helicopters abbreviated as AH-64 to be the best in limiting combat challenges. Advancement in the aviation technologies made Apache to be termed as the world's premier attack helicopter (Ference, 2002). The developments were arrived at after a series of research that outlined the challenges of the previous helicopters used in combat (Droff, 2017). The lessons learned enabled the enhancements of combat helicopters, wings, and pistons associated with the flights from the ground. Major weapon systems were developed amid enhancement of the efficiency of the wings and lift pistons. Attack helicopters portrayed to have limited attempts to arm aviators. For that matter, the use of large aircraft necessitated the need for the air force to perfect their aerial bombing techniques quickly. For instance, the Boeing B-17 was made to use all around aerial methods of attack. It incorporated various crew gun mounts amid ball-turret that were mounted beneath the aircraft. The bombers were protected by the new craft designs even though close air support was largely left to be carried out by different heroic individual efforts. Bell helicopter UH-1 was made to be an enhancement of army combat with specific improvements. The helicopter is mounted with two door-mounted machine guns that enhanced attacks. Another helicopter design was Guns-A-Go-Go helicopter (Ference, 2002). However, much was found out that the aircraft was prone to accidents thus the improvement was replaced with AH-1 Cobra.

Improvements of Combat Aircraft with Present-day Enemies Quest for Attacks

Since the enemies of tomorrow are continually advancing in their defense strategies, the development of combat helicopters should be concerned with flexibility, efficiency, and enhancement of survivability approach. Advance attack helicopters should be enhanced with quick attack appliances and machines. Like the Apache Attack Helicopters, the future combat helicopters should be mounted with 360 degrees revolving machine guns to secure the safety of the military officers on board. Since the Apache Attack Helicopters portray to have a highly mobile and useful asset for firepower (Ference, 2002). The current combat helicopters should have present-day anti-armor capability while in practice. Helicopters should be advanced with Apache Armaments as a way of playing a decisive role during combat. According to Droff (2017), there should be enhanced computer-controlled helicopters that can be used to attack. Dunbar, Froyland, and Wu (2012) mentioned aircraft scheduling as a way of managing the challenges of combat aircraft.

References

Ference, E. W. (2002). A case study of the development of the Apache attack helicopter (AH-64) (Doctoral dissertation, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School).

Droff, J. (2017). The European military helicopter industry: Trends and perspectives. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 12(1).

Dunbar, M., Froyland, G., & Wu, C. (2012). Robust airline schedule planning: Minimizing propagated delay in an integrated routing and crewing framework. Transportation Science, 46(2), 204-216. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db. erau.edu/docview/1018549987?accountid=27203