Originally Posted by Panther Al
While I agree that russian mobile battlefield air defense is much better than US Air Defense, the idea that Mil's and Ka's will eat M1's is equally as flawed.
I know you feel that Russian equipment is UberFantasticShineySparklyCool, but, there is a reason why a lot of countries when given the option choose by and large Western Equipment over Russian Equipment save on issues of Cost.
The KA50 is a piss poor ground attack helo: But I will give it this, Ground Attack is *not* its mission. Where the KA50 would (Again, is a prototype ubermachine not in service in any reasonable numbers) give NATO fits is in its defined role: the Anti-Helo mission. In this, the russians was a step in front of the west, as its a mission that we haven't given any serious thought to. The 30mm cannon on the Apache is little more than a glorified 30mm High Velocity Grenade Launcher, and mounting Sidewinders on it, while possible, or Stingers for that matter, is a ad-hoc solution that may or may not work out.
The MiL28 is decent: It's actually better than the AH1G/S series, and probably the equal to early AH1W's of the Marines - and maybe, maybe, early first flight Apache's in the mechanical sense. Where it falls apart is in regards to fighting in anything other than daylight: While it has some night vision capability, better than the hinds, it is nowhere near as good as western night-vision. Getting closer, I'll agree, but if I can see you well before you can see me, guess who is going to win?
One thing I will give the Russians is that the BMP3 is actually pretty darn interesting. While I think the IFV is, on the whole, a poor design path to follow, give the thing modern optics and firecontrol systems, which those that have purchased it have, and you got a pretty scary - if easily killed - IFV.
|