British Helicopter Tech Tree - Discussion Topic

They just disabled the comments, but the report is still open

I meant more that the last action on it was 7 months ago.

On a different note, the dev diary for the G Lynx says this:
image

I’m pretty sure you can’t attain that speed in game even if you go min fuel with no weapons.

Ah right yeah, so thats at least another 6 months before they even look at the bug report. I think the average is at least a year.

That’s correct. The configuration that broke the record and set that speed was highly modified (even more so than we have in game) specifically for that record. The game configuration cannot archive that speed, as it doesn’t just require the removal of all weaponry, but among the other mods, the additional tail surfaces that were fitted later in G-LYNX’S life:

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I can go test the top speed in game. It’s likely they used special fuel for the record irl

that too

Just extra strong Tea

Additional photo of a RN one with AS.12s
roy moxam 005
Maybe worth noting these are RN test/preproduction HAS.2s with the 3 windows in the cargo doors instead of the single large window

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I would never say no to some lovely naval Helicopters

3:10 in to this video about Lynx reveals that the mystery launchers on the IWM Gazelle footage were probably smoke canisters or illum flares on a Light Series Bomb Carrier:

Footage immediately before that is about Hawkswing installation on Lynx, and explains that the LSBC and Hawkswing used the same pylon installation. So Hawkswing probably could be viable on Gazelle

LighStores
Gazelle

Ed:- Added comparative image of the stores shown in the Lynx and Gazelle videos respectively

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And there that dream dies a death. Well done, very nice find.

We still would get the Swingfire on the Gazelle.

Yeah it’s highly frustrating that literally the only thing we are missing is an image of a Gazelle doing a fit check with Hawkswing.

We have various reports saying Hawkswing was expected to arm both Lynx and Gazelle
We have images of Hawkswing being test fired on Scout and that the AF.530 sight was used for aiming Hawkswing in such trials.
We have footage of Lynx with Hawkswing for fit checks along with testimony that this weapon installation also supported dropping bombs, reconnaissance flares and smoke markers with an LSBC. We have also seen Lynx with AF.530
We have footage of Gazelle flying with the same reconnaissance flares as Lynx, on a more refined LSBC. Along with the weapon selection panel for those flares, which also has a setting for ATGM under “Armament Selection”. Which follows the idea that Gazelle was intended to have the same weapon installation as Lynx.
And we know that in service, Gazelle did receive the related AF.532 sight, even if the missiles it was intended to aim were cancelled. And that it retained the pylons, and that they were utilised for SNEB during Op. Corporate, and Ultra 4000 FLIR during Op. Helvetic

All the pieces are there. Just not all together at the same time on the shrieking chicken drumstick.

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Ah the MoD. The biggest threat to the British Military.

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Was the AS.12 ever marketed on the standard one though? I find it odd because I have a book by Bill Gunston from the 80’s which has all sorts of crazy loadouts but not much evidence to back them up.

Navy one kind of was the standard one. More Navy Lynxes were built since it had far more export success than the Army Lynx. The latter was only operated by us and the Qatari Police.

And at the end of the day; throughout the world AS.12 has primarily been operated as a Naval missile, with the RN being the only British military service to do so (saw service on Wasp HAS.1, and Wessex HU.5). But it was considered a legacy 1960s system when Lynx was entering service in the late 1970s: the RN intended to have Sea Skua operational when Lynx reached IOC - AS.12 on HAS.2 was likely just backfilling the capability or simply helping to certify it for the French and other potential foreign customers. The UK’s ambition was to export both Navy Lynx and Sea Skua together.
The AAC appears to have had equally forward-looking requirement to replace AS.11 and only considered Hawkswing, HOT and TOW (and possibly Milan), that were in development at the time as air-launched ATGMs. So for Lynx AH.1 its only military customer evidently has no interest in trying AS.12 which was basically just a bigger AS.11.

However, the AS.12 mounting on both the RN and French HAS.2 appears to be the same “NATO flange” (sic) installation that the Hawkswing used to mount on AH.1 in the above video. So I imagine it technically could be adapted for AS.12 with compatible sights and control systems installed.
There’s the snippet from Flight International from the 1970s when Lynx was still in development and first being marketed for export, which doesn’t discern between Army Lynx and Navy Lynx in terms of weapon options. So maybe where some of the more exotic loadouts you mention come from, along with the stuff shown in this video from the 1980s or so, that seems to be geared towards (unsuccessfully) marketing Army Lynx abroad

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Awesome find. Honestly the fact that the Gazelle with the LSBC flares has a setting for ATGM is good enough for me, but obviously I’m not a developer so I don’t decide these things.

Speaking of AS.12: There aren’t many photos showing the Wasp’s APX/Bezu M260 stabilised sight used to assist aiming AS.12, installed on Wessex HU.5. I think I’ve only seen this tiny one and a couple of better ones of XT486 fitted with it

XT486

https://i.imgur.com/qAS0PMr.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NX4TtCH.jpg
Sight has a rain/dust cover over it in the second photo

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Would this, combined with the documentation showing the great interest in putting Hawkswing and Milan be enough to make a suggestion and convince the devs I wonder…

Does anyone have the performance of the Lynx HAS.3 please?