It is very simple to install the door machine gun of the Army Airlines
Adding a door machine gun to a helicopter is nothing new. It is not only a guarantee for self-defense against the enemy, but also for self-defense. Last year, there was a photo that immediately attracted attention after it came out. The temporary worker was turned into a regular employee and the Army Airlines had a new position - door gunner. Judging from the official reports at the time, the door gunner was upgraded from the ground crew and also conducted the first aerial live-fire training, equipped with the Z-20 multi-purpose helicopter.
Although the photo is not very complete, it is still quite powerful from this perspective. The position of the door gunner is actually not complicated. It has been more than 50 years since the earliest fixed establishment of the United States in the Vietnam War. The door gunners were set up completely according to actual battlefield needs. Since the 1960s, the United States has invested heavily in UH-1 "Huey" utility helicopters on the Vietnam battlefield to perform multi-purpose missions such as leap frog landing, battlefield rescue, material transportation, and medical evacuation.
These non-dedicated armed helicopters need to fly at low altitudes for long periods of time on front-line battlefields. For their own safety and the need for ground fire suppression, they can often install M60 7.62mm machine guns on rotating brackets on both sides of the hatch. This high rate of fire of hundreds of rounds per minute, coupled with the helicopter's high maneuverability, can completely wash the ground with bullets when coming and going, suppressing ground firepower while improving the helicopter's battlefield survivability.
Back to the topic, this simple combination of machine guns and helicopters is not difficult to achieve, but it was not until more than 50 years ago that we were able to equip similar configurations. There are not many details from the above photos. You can only see that it is a single-barreled large-caliber heavy machine gun. In fact, the Army Aviation was founded relatively late in the 1980s, and the domestically produced helicopters at that time were too weak and had limited supporting models. At first, there were only Z-5, Z-9, Gazelle, etc., which were either outdated or very small. Later, Mi-8, Mi-17/171, and S-70C "Black Hawk" were gradually added. The major tactical requirements are different. Most of the time is spent on running in and learning, and there is basically no need to use the hatch machine gun.
Correspondingly, the US military has a lot of practical experience. In the early days, the UH-1 only installed fixed brackets for emergency use, and then set up machine guns to cover the airborne troops. Continuous actual combat has made the US military fully aware of the importance of door machine guns as support and self-defense weapons in actual combat, so the subsequent helicopter development process has become a standard package. However, as mentioned above, our country has insufficient experience and experience in helicopter application. It has long studied under the Soviet Union, which also did not pay attention to door machine guns. In this way, unarmed helicopters have been streaking in the sky for a long time.
Until the new century, naval escort formations performed escort missions in the Gulf of Aden. The so-called actual combat gave rise to new weapons. The local situation was relatively complex and required long-term monitoring, tracking, and identification of targets. As a result, the ship's helicopters needed to expose their sides to target firepower for a long time. As the main force, the Z-9 began to try to set up the door machine guns. Later, other helicopters of the Army Aviation also gradually installed them for training.
However, due to lack of application experience, the initial problem was just to solve the problem. From the actual situation, the bracket is very simple, and a base is fixed at the door of the aircraft cabin. Although it has achieved a breakthrough from scratch and can indeed suppress ground and sea targets with hatch machine gun fire, the installation location is obviously inappropriate and affects the firing range and personnel getting on and off the aircraft.
The bracket of this kind of door machine gun is fixed, which is relatively clear from the perspective outside the cabin. It is fixed at the entrance and exit by a simple gun holder, which affects both the field of view and the shooting range of the machine gunner. Not only is the Z-9 equipped with a door machine gun, but the Zhi-8 of the Chinese Army Air Force also had a similar device before, but the problem was the same. The mounting bracket was built directly into the cabin door.
It would be a good thing to add a door machine gun, but if only a simple tripod is used as a fixed base, then most of the gun body will be obviously restricted in the shooting range in the cabin. Moreover, the machine gun, including its base, takes up a lot of space inside the aircraft. The shooter's half-crouched shooting posture is also very awkward. It is obviously difficult to shoot accurately when the helicopter is flying or maneuvering. Since it takes up half of the hatch, it directly affects the passage of personnel and internal loads. .
Many years have passed, and the latest photos of the Armed Police Zhi-9 show that there is still a big difference when the door machine gun is used again. As you can see from the photos, the police Z-9 helicopter is also equipped with a door machine gun. It can be seen from the full view that many details have been optimized in the design, and it can indeed be seen that the performance has been improved a lot.
First of all, although the base still seems to be fixed inside the cabin, there is a moving track under the base, which means that the machine gun with a door can move forward and backward, and the field of view and shooting range can be flexibly adjusted according to combat needs. Secondly, it seems that the middle part of the gun frame can be folded down, which means that the gun body can be drooped outside the cabin. The combined use of the two has optimized the internal space occupied. Finally, in the past, the squatting shooting posture was awkward, but this new base also comes with a simple stool, which allows you to sit on it and integrate the door machine gun for higher shooting accuracy. The shell collection bag has also been equipped, and the overall improvement is very great, but details such as helmets, goggles, knee pads, gloves and the most important safety rope are not included.
The performance improvement of starting from scratch and starting from scratch is not bad, but I feel that the design idea is a bit different from the internationally used hatch machine gun. After all, our door machine guns always like to be placed inside. For example, the vertical axis of the US military door machine gun is installed outside the gun cabin, and the entire door machine gun is suspended outside the cabin. The advantage of this design is that the 90-degree firing range can be directly increased to 180 degrees. It is not complicated to implement. The door machine gun mount is vertically mounted on a crossbeam that can move at a large angle, allowing rapid movement and shooting according to the target.
Push the machine gun out during combat and hang it up after use. This design takes up very little space in the hatch. This kind of design should not be a big problem for the Chinese military industry. If you want to build it correctly without copying it from scratch, the main reason is that the tactical thinking has not kept up with the actual combat needs.
Although the tactical ideas are different and the experience is insufficient, there has been no perfect hatch machine gun and supporting base for a long time. Compared with the international advanced level, there is still a big gap. However, with the formal emergence of the door gunner position, and the improved base of the Z-9, it will be equipped with a large number of general-purpose helicopters such as the Z-20 in the future. After assuming the leading role in air transportation, assault, rescue and other missions, it will also face the threat of powerful ground firepower. It should not be difficult to optimize and launch new products as soon as possible by referring to the relatively mature hatch machine gun design abroad.