History & Introduction
The Aeropspatiale SA365 Dauphin was a medium weight helicopter that became the progenitor of some of the worlds most widely used family of helicopters. The SA365 was renamed to be the EC365 when Aerospatiale merged into Eurocopter, later into EADS and then finally into airbus and redesignated to be AS365.
The Eurocopter EC565 Panther started its life as a purpose built military version of the Dauphin. In the Feburary of 1984, the prototype AS365M took to the skies as the first of 3 prototypes of the military variant. Named Panther, it went on to production and continues to serve in over 36 countries/organisations around the world.
The story today, is of another sibling of the panther, one specially modified to trial the, at the time, state-of-the-art TRIGAT IR guided ATGM and the OSIRIS helicopter rotor-mast-mounted sight.
In 1995, Eurocopter completed the trials for the integration and flight tests for both the missiles and the sight, paving the way for the future of the German UH Tiger Anti-Tank helicopter program*. To that goal, the Eurocopter owned Panther alongside its other colleagues such as the BK117-AVT proved to be a valuable asset in the trials for the different subsystems of the OSIRIS.
The Panther helicopter was used for the first air launched slug firing (motor only) of the TRIGAT missile and proving to France, Germany and United Kingdom that the program was heading along smoothly, although sadly it did not keep two of the nations invested as UK dropped out of the TRIGAT/PARS 3 program followed by France soon after. Both before the missile could reach production.
Specifications
Max speed: 306kmph
Max altitude: 5865m
Engine: 2 х Turboméca Arriel 2C turboshaft
Power: 1704hp (2 x 852 hp)
Take-off weight: 4.3t
Sensors & Avionics
- Search radar (sea)
- TVD (Osiris)
- HMD/S (OSIRIS can slave AAMs but its not modelled in game yet)
- LRF/LD
- RWR
- Chaff & flares (possible)
Armament
- TRIGAT LR ATGM, 4+4
- HOT series ATGM, 4+4
- Mistral AAM (possibility), 2+2
Extra Reading*
The HAC controversy and implementation in game
The EC565 Panther OSIRIS is a helicopter with a mixed lineage, going back to Aerospatiale for the base design of the vehicle but yet owned and operated by Eurocopter in its current modification as the trials aircraft. This gives it two possible nations to be implemented in. Being added to one would not exclude it from being added to the other, the two nations being France and Germany. However, i would like to see it added to the game in a specific manner.
As the title of this heading may hint, the Tiger HAC being added to the game was somewhat of a controversial addition. The reasoning for that being that the HAC… never existed. Yes. The concept and the proposal existed. The commonly shown images of the Tiger HAC are all actually of a Prototype Tiger UHT.
Specifically, its known as the F-ZWWT and later as the PT3/R. The PT3/R was trialled in UHT and HAD (the prototypes were modular and could be retrofitted with the UHT/HAP/D systems) configurations (mast mounted sight+TRIGAT/PARS and Roof mounted sight + chin gun respectively) –
– but it was settled into a UHT by 1997 with serial number 98+23 and remains a UHT. It can be found today in the German Hubschrauber museum.
Simply put, Eurocopter used the UHT for demonstrations in the unsucessful HAC trials by painting a new roundel on it and then returned the helicopter to Germany.
This is where the EC565 Panther OSIRIS comes into play. This grants the French nation a much more real and similarly capable helicopter with the same OSIRIS Mast mounted sight as well as the TRIGAT LR ATGMs. Hence this would be the perfect realistic replacement for the HAC.
Sources for PT3
Sources
- Yes
- No