RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – During the H-145M Firing Demo Days Romania, Airbus Helicopters presented for the first time the H-145M helicopter armed with Rafael Spike ER2 anti-tank missiles, where a Brazilian Army delegation led by Army Aviation commander General Ricardo Nigri and members of his staff attended the demonstration.
Installed on the H-145M using the HForce Level 3 system, each unit can carry up to eight of these missiles (x4 on each side) with a practical range of up to 16 km.
The ER2 Spike can be armed with different types of warheads to engage different types of targets.
According to the Airbus Helicopters technicians and engineers present, an H-145M equipped with HForce Level 3 can offer approximately 80% of the capabilities of a modern attack helicopter for one-third of the price.
This economy is one of the factors that attracted the Brazilian presence in Romania, as the Brazilian Army Aviation is looking for air-to-ground missile capability and has recently acquired a batch of 100 Rafael Spike missiles of the same type and version fired during the demonstration.
Behind the scenes, there is talk of Brazil’s strong interest in the H-145M advanced rotor helicopter, equipped with the HForce Level 3 and armed with Spike missiles, as an “economical” attack helicopter designed to fill this gap in Army Aviation, occupying Helibras’ assembly lines (stopgap), preserving jobs and maintaining a production capacity and after-sales support of excellence.
This option could pass through the production under license of the H-145M in Itajubá by Helibras, the fact that InfoDefensa reported in 2019 during a visit to Airbus Helicopters in Germany, occasion in which the report had access to the H-145M with a five-blade rotor, the most sophisticated version of the model.
According to Airbus Helicopters, the aircraft can perform other types of missions beyond missile strikes against armored vehicles, troops, and enemy positions, maintaining significant operational flexibility for the Brazilian scenario.
Other possibilities of the solution presented by Airbus Helicopters include the ability to control unmanned systems (MuM-T – Man Unmanned Teaming) launched from the helicopter, the use of new protection systems, such as improved flare launchers, and the possibility of extending data exchange by integrating the H145M with command and control centers and battlefield management systems (BMS).
With information from InfoDefensa