This can be a Premium I guess [Kawasaki OH-1Kisarazu]
The Kawasaki OH-1 (nickname: “Ninja”) is a military [scout/observation] [helicopter] developed and manufactured by the [Kawasaki Aerospace Company]. The primary operator is the [Japan Ground Self-Defense Force] (JGSDF), who originally procured the OH-1 as a domestically produced successor to their existing [OH-6D Loach] fleet. The OH-1 has the distinction of being the first helicopter to be entirely produced in Japan.
In addition to its use as an observation helicopter, it can also be armed to directly participate in combat; such weapons include a limited quantity of [air-to-air missiles] for self-defense purposes. Several variants of the OH-1 have been proposed, these have included derivatives of the type to serve as an [attack helicopter] as well as an aborted project to develop a [utility helicopter]. As of March 2014, a total of 38 OH-1s have entered service with the JGSDF; so far these complement the existing OH-6Ds rather than replace them.
In December 2022, the Japanese government decided to replace 33 OH -1, 12 [AH-64D], 47 [AH-1S] and 26 U-125A with unmanned aerial vehicles. Japan plans to increase its defense budget from 1.24% of GDP in fiscal 2021 to around 2.0% within 10 years, and has decided to retire these helicopters and aircraft as part of an effort to spend its defense budget efficiently.
Specifications of Kawasaki OH-1 [ Data from Kawasaki Aerospace}
Looking from the front like this.
The bottom 1/3 is infrared light and the other 2/3 is normal light.
Here is a photo of the landing light on display at the Aviation Industry Exhibition. Manufactured by Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which is famous for automobile lights which is given below:-
There is a step on the right side of the front fuselage for getting into the cockpit and climbing the fuselage.
The other details are given in the following link : Picture AlbumKawasaki OH-1 - Wikipedia
More information will be provided further about this Helicopter and I am trying my best to provide information and data as I want to see this Helicopter in the Tech tree of Japan. Please help my post to reach out to the devs by sharing it Thank you.
I’m not sure what you mean “new helicopter models” since the OH-1 isn’t in game, unless you meant add more helicopters (models). There are suggestions for the vehicle to be added into the game that were made on the old forum:
They were passed to consideration but it depends if the devs want to add this vehicle. And tbh I can’t blame them it’s kind of hard to place in the tree and make this helicopter work well.
As neat as this helicopter would be, it would in the end be useless if its only armament is 4 AAM’s. If I remember correctly this helicopter was strictly used as a Scout Helicopter pretty much like the American initial job of the OH-58 Kiowa before they started throwing weapons on it. Even if Gaijin implemented scouting for helicopters your still not doing anything since its not killing anything. But unless they decide to make the attack variant of the OH-1 that would be awesome but iirc was just a paper idea and was never made. But in reality any and all helicopters would get scouting ability as they all have that capabilities.
TY-90 wich can spawn full of AA missiles right of the start fill AA role pretty good and doesn’t look like out of place.
This one can be an easy solution for Japan lack of SPAA. 4 AAMs and being able to scout or put UAV marks will help to not feel like alpha-test of real nation a lot.
But seeing nerf history of already dead type93 and how they ignore whole tech tree doesn’t give me much hopes
We 100% need this as a new Japanese TT heli model.
It has 4 hard points to attach AGMs/rockets/AAMs. And has a 20mm nose cannon.
This is basically similar to the French and German EC665 Tigers and China’s Z-10.
In the research tree, an arrow could go from the AH-1S to the side and down to tier VII so that it sits beside the AH-64 DJP.
It could carry 4 tubes of AGMs or 19 hydras on each of its inner hard points.
So 8x Hellfires or 38 Hydras total, plus the AAMs on its outer pylons.
Plus, it was SUPER NIMBLE.
