It can carry up to 4 hellfires
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From what I had read so far, I couldn’t find reliable information that confirms that.
Can you tell me where you can find that information?
From what I’ve seen, some sources indicate 4 hellfires
Spoiler
And in addition, I remember the interview of the JSDF officer, who indicated that the SH-60 can carry 4 Hellfires, they simply abandoned this due to the danger of damaging the lower row of missiles on the deck during landing.
Is this not enough? It’s possible, but I’m afraid it’s necessary to prove here not that the SH-60 can carry 4 missiles, but that it can only carry 2 missiles. The SH-60 was licensed from an American design that supported this feature. Therefore, in order to prove the impossibility of carrying 4 Hellfires, opponents, according to the principle of Occam’s razor, will need to prove that in some of the upgrades the corresponding equipment was deliberately removed from Japanese side.
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I don’t have any information that proves the impossibility of carrying 4 Hellfires so, I guess we might be able to give it 4 Hellfires?
Also while researching on this topic, I found this image on twitter.
Spoiler
Find the tweet here
This image indicates that there are some SH-60Ks equipped with the M299 Launcher though in a 2 rail configuration. I thought if only two missiles were necessary, they would be chuck it on to the 4 rail launcher and just ignore the empty rails.
I’m not really familiar with missile launchers so I would love to ask someone if it is possible to make the 4 railed M299 Launcher into a 2 launcher by removing the 2 lower launchers.
Anyways thanks for the info!!
There are launchers for 2 and 4 missiles, both are in service in Japan. You could see the option for 4 ATGMs on the AH-64DJP. If you do not fill the bottom row of hangers, this does not eliminate the risk of damage to them, and there is little point in moving empty cells. As far as we know, both configurations for 2 and 4 ATGMs are completely interchangeable; there is no helicopter in nature capable of carrying only 2 or only 4 ATGMs due to the features of the interface.
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In retrospect, perhaps I did not fully explain the reason. The fact is that these are deck-based helicopters, therefore, with a storm at sea, the deck swings significantly (pitching/rolling), rises and falls and generally moves, it`s creates significant difficulties for helicopters to take on/off. It was precisely because of fears of damage during landing during rough seas that they subsequently switched to mountings for 2 Hellfires.
By the way, the SH-60 carries a modern system for automatically landing a helicopter on the deck, which is designed to significantly reduce the workload on pilots and eliminate the human factor when landing in particularly difficult weather conditions. Nevertheless, it was still decided that it would be more reliable to use smaller mounts. I suspect that this was done as part of the Japanese practice of facilitating and reducing the costs of operating military equipment in peacetime, and in case of war, mounts for 4 ATGMs would be returned, but these are just guesses.
If this helicopter can carry 4x Hellfires, then why not?
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honestly playing naval and having a helicopter torpedo you would be funny, even though AA would chew the heli to peices
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Given an effective range of 15+ km and a speed of 40 knots, the helicopter would have a chance of surviving the attack, and this attack would probably be effective given the active/passive acoustic homing. It’s just that the warhead is quite modest, about ~45 kg, and one helicopter is capable of simultaneously carrying two such torpedoes.
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Helis with hellfires start at 10.3 Br. Since this will only carry 4x hellfires, she will also be 10.3
The only sad part and concern is that I won’t be able to use it with ease at 10.3 due to no line ups. Will either force my 9.0-7 tanks to face 11.3 tanks or just use it with my 11.0 line up and the AH-64DJP already exist there. There is the F-1 and Type 81 C to pair them with, but Type 81 C will soon go from 10.0 to 11.0. That’s about the only thing I’m worried about. Still hoping to see it for sure, will be fun to use.
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modern torpedo’s can sort of track themselves right? wouldn’t this have those or would it have WW2 era torpedo’s so it was fair
The Hellfires on this is the M variant, which only has an HE warhead. Not an HEAT one like other Hellfires. So, might have a lower BR?
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Oh, how effective are those?
Not really much tbh. The US Army says that the M variant which is equipped with the Blast Fragmentation Warhead is used against Bunkers, Buildings, Towed Artillery, Boats and etc. I guess it isn’t effective against MBT’s or even thin skined vehicles.
Spoiler
[Image from page 19.]
(https://ndiastorage.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/ndia/2009/psa_arm/wedBoles.pdf)
In WT, it could be effective against vehicles without armor (such as the FlaRakRad, Pantsir-S1, Type 93, Type 81 etc). Also, the warhead has 2.511kg of PBXN-109 explosive fill so, it might be able to overpressure and destroy or knock out crews of some vehicles (such as the various M113 variants, small thin skined vehicles)? Though these are guesses.
Warhead information in page 35.
TECHNICAL ORDER 00-105E-9 revision 11 segment 14
Technically, it has a delayed fuse setting mode, which makes it somewhat similar to a SAP. But yes, it will add a limited amount of penetration.
+1
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Didn’t the JMSDF just recently completed trials on the new XSH-60L variant? I think its basically just upgraded electronics but with a better engine I think. Its got some sick ass liveries as well.
Yeah, it was accepted into service on Dec 22 2023.
I don’t have concrete evidence, but it is said that it has an upgraded transmission and an improved tail-rotor-blade. These improvements are aimed at solving the loss of torque under high-tempreture-environments such as the Cost of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden where the JMSDF has been involved in the international counter-piracy effort under CTF 151.
Also it is said that the mission system has been improved to be able handle multistatic-sonars meaning that it is able to use not only its dipping sonar’s data but also other sonar’s data.
Equipment wise, the FLIR system is changed from the Ratheon made Fujitsu built licenced one to one that is built by actuall “FLIR System”. Also there’s a weird boxy thing under the MAW which its use is not known. (image in spoiler)
Armament wise, there isn’t much to say else than the fact it is able to use the Type 12 torpedo, but was probably usable for the SH-60K (also no concrete evidence to prove for this post).
Also, here’s a random image with a XSH-60L with 2 torpedos.
Spoiler
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Is it known if the second hardpoint can mount Hellfire missiles? If so, this would be a nice improvement over the SH-60K when both are added (4 missiles for the K and 8 for the L)
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