Back in the unit, Lian Mingyang immediately adjusted the task, replacing the rocket launcher nest with a light air-to-air missile specially developed for helicopter gunships.

If in the face of the "Hind", the 30-mm machine gun is barely enough, then in the face of the "Tiger", it is far from enough.

Looking at the world, there are only two types of armed helicopters that are qualified to challenge the "Z-10A", and the "Tiger" is one of them.

As a matter of fact, the fact that the Empire has co-opted the Locke Kingdom and joined forces with the Raleigh Kingdom and several other major member states of the Western Continent Group to jointly fund the development of this kind of special armed helicopter is a direct manifestation of the major change in the military strategy of the Western Continent Group and its greater emphasis on strategic defense.

In the previous decades, with the exception of the Western Luosha, many member states of the Western Continent Group, including the Yamaman Empire, did not attach much importance to helicopter gunships. Fundamentally, it is not that the importance of helicopter gunships is not recognized, but that they are limited by basic strategies.

To put it simply, for a long period of time after the war, because its overall strength was far inferior to that of the Eastern Bloc, the Western Continent Group never thought of winning through defense, and bet all its bets on the offensive in a vain attempt to force the Eastern Bloc to make peace with the Eastern Bloc with the attack.

This is the guiding ideology of the Western Continent Group in the development of weapons and equipment.

In short, it is to attack with all your strength after the start of the war, and after mastering enough battlefield advantages, then sit down and negotiate with the Eastern Bloc.

The offensive has a very distinctive feature, the rate of loss of weapons and equipment is very high, and almost all main battle platforms do not reach their design life.

Compared with the inexpensive main battle tanks, the expensive gunships are not very suitable for offensive operations.

To be said, this viewpoint of fighting a war of attrition is vividly reflected in the main battle equipment of Xiluosha.

Whether it is the T series main battle tank, or the MG series fighter, as well as the MI series helicopter, it is designed to have a very short life. The airframe structure of the MG-29 fighter had only about 2,000 hours of flight life, compared to more than 6,000 hours for the Imperial fighters of the same era.

As for whether the all-out attack will work, it doesn't really matter.

The reason is also very simple, there was simply no better alternative strategy at that time!

After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Liangxia Empire and the Republic of Nuland, the global landscape underwent a major transformation.

From the perspective of the Xilu Group, the living environment has improved a lot.

To put it simply, after the global influence of the Northern Orphan Group, led by the Republic of Nuland, was recognized, the military threat to the Western Continent Group was significantly reduced.

It was against this background that the Xilu Group launched the development of the "Tiger" armed helicopter.

Obviously, this in itself is quite representative.

The Sairiku group began to think about defense, and thought that it could be used to win future wars.

Interestingly, the Empire did not bring in the Western Lothar.

To say, among the Western Continent Group, Xiluosha is the real helicopter power, and it has taken the lead in developing and equipping armed helicopters. Thousands of MI-24 "Hinds" were produced, which, in addition to their own use, were exported to dozens of countries, becoming a truly global helicopter.

In addition, a few years before the Empire launched the project to develop the "Tiger" type, Xi Luosha launched a plan to develop a new type of armed helicopter, and aimed at the "Z-10A" of the Liangxia Empire, which required to have overwhelming, at least comparable performance.

Interestingly, Xiluosha developed two new armed helicopters at the same time, namely the MI-28, which basically refers to the "Z-10A" and has been enlarged, and the KA-50, which adopts a coaxial twin-rotor layout and is a two-seater in parallel, and at the same time let these two armed helicopters carry out engineering test flights.

It's a pity that it's still very early to get officially equipped.

It can be seen that Xiluosha has a more urgent need for helicopter gunships.

This also happens to be the key reason why the Hindan Empire sent Xi Luosha out.

Here, it's not just a question of dominance.

The Riman Empire was the victorious power, with hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in Xiluosha, and there was no question of competing with Xiluosha for the dominance of the Xilu group.

The key to this is actually the use of helicopter gunships.

In the West Lok Shah Army, helicopter gunships are mainly used for offensive, so they are designed with a greater focus on offensive support, with a focus on supporting armored forces.

This demand is vividly reflected in the "Hind".

Behind the cockpit of the "Hind", there is a crew cabin that can accommodate eight infantrymen, making it the only helicopter gunship in the world that can carry infantry combat.

As such, the Hind has the largest helicopter gunship.

According to the idea of the West Luosha Army, the "Hind" is not only responsible for striking at the enemy's armored forces, but also sending infantry to the front line during the attack, occupying and controlling the advance strongholds, and assisting the tanks in combat when necessary, so as to give full play to the value of infantry and tank coordination.

Apparently, the idea is very "idealistic".

Actual combat has long proved that the huge crew capsule of the "Hind" is useless most of the time, and it is not even a decoration.

Even if you really want to send infantry to the front line, you should send transport helicopters.

This kind of extreme design is certainly not to the appetite of the Hindan Empire.

Although on the new helicopter gunships, namely the MI-28 and KA-50, Xi Luosha has learned his lessons and abandoned many unrealistic requirements, but these two types of helicopter gunships are still in the development stage, and there have been several accidents during this period, which really cannot reassure the Empire.

CRUCIALLY, BOTH THE MI-28 AND THE KA-50 ARE GENUINE "HEAVY GUNSHIPS".

Strictly speaking, the MI-12, with a design take-off weight of 28 tons, is already an "overweight" helicopter gunship. EVEN THE SLIGHTLY LIGHTER KA-50 IS DESIGNED TO HAVE A TAKE-OFF WEIGHT OF MORE THAN 10 TONS, AND MOST LIKELY UP TO 11 TONS, WHICH IS NOT MUCH LIGHTER THAN THE MI-28.

Obviously, that's the key.

Heavy gunships are certainly more powerful, but again, they are bound to be more expensive.

But the problem is that compared with the slightly lighter medium gunships, the cost performance of heavy gunships is certainly not high, and it can even be said to be very bad.

If anything, the longer range, greater survivability and greater payload of heavy gunships make them more valuable in an attack.

This is also the key to Xi Luosha's insistence on the use of heavy helicopter gunships.

For the other members of the Western Continent such as the Empire, the attack was actually a secondary need!

Don't forget, it was because of the shift to strategic defense that the Western Continent member states such as the Empire had the will to develop and equip helicopter gunships.

To put it bluntly, what the Western Continent member countries such as the Western Continent Empire need is actually a medium-sized armed helicopter with moderate weight and outstanding cost performance.

As for combat capabilities, it doesn't matter if it's almost.

From a tactical point of view, in defensive operations, a helicopter gunship with a lower performance may not be able to fight a heavy helicopter with better performance.

Taking the combat radius as an example, when defending, it is basically relying on one's own defense line to fight, and it can start from the forward base, thereby greatly shortening the combat radius. If the bomb load is not enough, you can also get supplies at the forward base, and you can solve the problem by flying a few more round-trips.

In addition, there is a clear difference between defense and offense in terms of the performance requirements for armed helicopters.

The "Tiger" type is the first in the world, and it is clearly required when it is designed, and it is an armed helicopter that can conduct air combat with helicopters and seize air supremacy in the treetops.

Prior to that, all helicopter gunships, without emphasizing air combat performance.

When the Imperial Army launched the design works for the "Z-10A", to be precise, the tender issued did not mention helicopter air combat at all.

Strictly speaking, I didn't think it was necessary at the time.

In addition, in defensive operations, helicopter gunships have to deal not only with enemy tanks and armored fighting vehicles, but also with fire support for forward troops. To put it simply, it is necessary to undertake a part of the tasks that originally belonged to attack aircraft in order to improve battlefield adaptability.

As a result, the "Tiger" was designed with three models, namely the anti-armor type, the fire support type, and the air combat type.

Although these three models use exactly the same airframe and the same power system, the difference is mainly reflected in the electronic equipment and airborne weapons, but it is unprecedented to engage in several models at the same time, rather than concentrating these performance requirements on one model.

This can also be seen as a sign of the lack of money for the Saisuku Group.

To put it bluntly, because it was limited to medium-sized, it had to be divided into 3 sub-models to reduce the difficulty of design and ensure that it could be put into production in time.

The point is that the design take-off weight of the "Tiger" is only 6 tons!

What is this concept?

After being equipped with two engines, the "Z-7W" has a maximum take-off weight of more than 10 tons, making it a genuine heavy helicopter gunship.

It is simply impossible to achieve all the performance and tactical indicators in a 6-ton body.

Not to mention the Xilu Group, it can't be done in the Liangxia Empire.

Otherwise, the "Z-10A" would not have been characterized as a heavy armed helicopter from the beginning, and the maximum take-off weight would have been relaxed to more than 11 tons.

Of course, this is not to say that the "Tiger" style is not powerful enough.

Relatively speaking, the air combat performance of the "Tiger" is not bad, and it can even be said that it is the benchmark for other armed helicopters above all the current Five Heroes upgrades.

If anything, it is the "Tiger" type, which forced the Imperial Army to invest in the development of the "TY-1" light air-to-air missile.

As early as more than 20 years ago, that is, shortly after the "Z-7" was put into service, the Imperial Army conducted a test, armed helicopters equipped with combat missiles used by fighters, attacking ultra-low-altitude flight, that is, simulating the target aircraft of helicopters, exploring and exploring the air combat tactics of helicopters.

The test results weren't bad, but they did reveal a lot of problems.

For example, a combat missile with a mass of almost 100 kilograms is indeed too large for a helicopter gunship of several tons.

The most prominent problem is that the infrared seeker of the combat missile is difficult to lock onto a helicopter flying at an ultra-low altitude, and it is easy to miss the target. In many cases, when missiles can be launched, the target aircraft has already entered the range of the machine gun, and the combat efficiency of the machine gun is not bad.

It was through this series of tests that the Imperial Army temporarily stopped the relevant exploration.

It wasn't until a few years ago, after obtaining "Tiger" intelligence, that the Imperial Army discovered that it really had to take helicopter air combat seriously.

The key is technological progress.

Among them, the most important is infrared imaging technology.

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, the first of the Western Continent Group to be put into production was the air combat type.

For the same reason, the Western Continent Group needed a full-time air combat helicopter to deal with the low-altitude assault forces of the Eastern Bloc.

Do not forget that the helicopter gunships of the Eastern Bloc surpass the Western Continent in terms of quantity and quality, and are the number one threat to the Western Continent.

It was for this reason that the Imperial Army invested in the development of light air-to-air missiles for helicopter gunships.

In essence, the "TY-1" is an improved version of the "HY-3D" individual air defense missile, to be precise, the body of the individual air defense missile is adopted.

In order to increase the range, the "TY-1" adopted a rocket booster with greater thrust.

To do this, the launch mass was increased to 36 kg.

This weight is far more than the carrying capacity of a soldier, but for a helicopter gunship, it is obviously much lighter than a combat missile close to 100 kilograms.

In general, the Z-10A can be carried in parallel pylons with 2 pieces on the outboard of the short wing.

If desired, there is also the option of quadruple launchers.

It's just that the increased load will lead to a decrease in the flight performance of the helicopter, and most of the time, not so many missiles will be used at all.

Do not forget that the "Z-10A" has a machine gun with thousands of rounds in reserve.

Although the performance of the "TY-1" was very good, most of the time, pilots still preferred to use the fierce machine guns.

Fundamentally, it is still the reliability of the missiles that is not high enough.

According to the test, the "TY-1" hit rate of a single shot against a treetop height target was only 60% at most, and did not reach the claimed 80%.

In the event of an attack, as long as the jamming bomb is released and the emergency evasion is carried out, the helicopter gunship has a great chance of throwing off the missile.

The point is that the thermal radiation of the helicopter gunship is not too prominent.

Through confrontation training, the Imperial Army Aviation summed up a set of evasive tactics against missiles, and it was written into the textbook of helicopter pilots.

In addition, the Helicopters of the Reich were all equipped with jamming systems.

On the tail boom of the "Z-10A", there are 4 sets of infrared jamming missile launchers, which can be used in four times, or all at once.

All in all, in ultra-low-altitude air combat, there is no missile that can replace the machine gun for the time being.

This situation is similar to the lack of air-to-air missiles during the Polish-Iranian War to replace aerial artillery, that is, pilots are more confident in ballistic weapons that do not need guidance.

Of course, Lian Mingyang did not feel that "TY-1" was not good enough.

When making arrangements, he made special emphasis on requiring each helicopter to carry at least four "TY-1s", and the squad leader and squadron leader should bring at least eight on their landlines.

Even if the performance of the "TY-1" is not very good, the range of up to 10 kilometers can provide more opportunities for the "Z-10A" to fire.

The point is that Lian Mingyang does not want to engage in combat air combat with the "Tiger" style.

Although he had never encountered the "Tiger" type on the battlefield, in fact, before hearing about it from Zheng Zhishuang, Lian Mingyang did not know that this kind of helicopter had been officially put into service, but in the imaginary enemy units of the Imperial Army, several of them had been specially improved to specifically imitate the "Tiger" type of "Zhi-7".

In the training against the imaginary enemy troops, Lian Mingyang and the others did not suffer any less!

As a matter of fact, almost all helicopter air combat tactics are the result of summing up lessons learned in confrontation training with imaginary enemy units.

In Lian Mingyang's own words, in the face of the more flexible "Tiger" type, because of the lack of engine power, the more bulky "Z-10A" basically has no chance of winning.

Whenever possible, Lian Mingyang hopes to end the battle with missiles at a sufficient distance.