'90s British Helicopter Procurements

[Lawman]

With the Lynx, Puma, Wessex and Sea King all needing replacement, the UK decides that the time has come for a major program to replace its helicopter fleet. The EH-101 Merlin is agreed to be the best platform for the high-end, but there is still a need to replace both utility troop transport and anti-tank helicopters. With the end of the Cold war, and Romania now friendly, the UK decides to go down a totally unexpected path! It settles on buying Romanian built IAR-330 Puma helicopters, in two versions - a conventional Puma transport, and a new gunship.

Following the Puma's role in TV movies of the '80s as an improvised Mi-24 Hind-A, the UK decides to actually buy a genuine production version! It has newer engines, giving a good speed, but also a massive weapons load - it has six wing hardpoints, each capable of carrying either four Hellfire/Brimstone missiles, or a 19-round rocket pod. The attack helo also carries a 30mm M230 cannon, as used on the Apache, giving it a very high weapons load. The cabin can be used to carry at least one complete reload of all weapons carried (potentially 24 Hellfires, or 114 rockets!), or up to a dozen heavily armed troops. The aircraft is routinely used for insertion of special operations units (SAS, Paras etc...), or anti-tank teams, being able to carry up to four complete Milan/Javelin three man teams, or CSAR operations.

With the new emphasis on expeditionary operations, the government becomes willing to actually spend (yes, this is alternative history!) on the new tools. The RAF decides it really wants to buy some of the attack helicopters, but does not stop the Army's anti-tank helo program - they propose to buy their own batch. The RN decides it will get some as well, to support Royal Marine units, in both transport and gunship variants.

Procurement is as follows:

Army:

120 Puma utility helicopters
120 Puma attack helicopters

RAF:

60  Puma attack helicopters (for CSAR and Special Ops missions)
60  Puma utility helicopters (for SAR mostly, and some light transport missions)

RN:

60 Puma utility helicopters (to support Marine operations, replacing Sea Kings)
30 Puma attack helicopters (an unexpected order, to give the RM some heavier support)

All in all, this meant an order for 240 utility helicopters, and no less than 210 attack helicopters! A total of 450 helicopters - the basic fuselages are built in Romania, and then shipped to the UK for completion (in a similar way to Britten Norman's Islander). Once in the UK, Westland complete the helicopter, and conduct the check flights, before being passed to BAE for the weapons system integration. BAE then fit an advanced wing, similar in many ways to that of the Harrier.

Thoughts?

[Archibald]

Well, the russians made good use of armed Mi-8s and Mi-17s variants for years! So why not an armed Puma ?
(for info, the Puma also formed the basis of the Rooilvalk... seems I scorched the name of the South African chopper, sorry!)

[elmayerle]

And why couldn't you do a Puma-based equivalent of a Mi-14?  'Twould be most useful for SAR purposes if you could land in water if necessary.

[Archibald]

And maybe one could use adapt a CL-215 / 415 hull to a Puma ?  

IAR (Romanian aircraft industry) made some impressive achievements.

Be sure that the Armée de Terre would be interested by this armed variant of the Puma to replace its used Puma (30 years old now, no anti-icing system, and still 5 years to wait until NH-90 come   )

Love those Romanina armed Pumas      

A gunship EC-725 (evolved Super Puma)  would be something    

[famvburg]

And maybe one could use adapt a CL-215 / 415 hull to a Puma ?  

IAR (Romanian aircraft industry) made some impressive achievements.

Be sure that the Armée de Terre would be interested by this armed variant of the Puma to replace its used Puma (30 years old now, no anti-icing system, and still 5 years to wait until NH-90 come   )

Love those Romanina armed Pumas      

A gunship EC-725 (evolved Super Puma)  would be something  

       Kinda like the Rooivalk? Doesn't it use Puma systems & such?

[Archibald]

Well, the russians made good use of armed Mi-8s and Mi-17s variants for years! So why not an armed Puma ?
(for info, the Puma also formed the basis of the Rooilvalk... seems I scorched the name of the South African chopper, sorry!)

 Ok, I know I've scorched the name of this chopper... but it was at least readable...

yes, the Rool... thing use Puma systems, simply because South Africa was embargoed at the time it designed its attack chopper. As a consequence they used what they had on hand - Puma's sub- systems.
This made the Rooilvalk a bit heavy and not too agile (transmission and rotor are a bit outsized)  

[B777LR]

Why not convert some AS 350 or 550?