Rules regarding sensors........

[Army of One]

Hello all......I was just wondering.....I know its whiff land but.....are there any rules re placing of sensors on and around the noses/top of rotor of helo's and subsonic a/c? I know on this site you can do what you want....but if it were to be believable.....basically my question revolves around attack helo's......I have some and wanna change the configuration of what they have...I have studied pics and there doesn't seem to be any rules. I am worried about placing something next to something that may suffer interfearance....maybe a radar next to something?? Not entirely sure how some of the stuff works....I will also be modernising/adding sensors to a BN Islander and poss the little Dornier thingy by Revell in 1/72....if I can find one....hope this is not a silly question,thanks for looking and thanks in advance for any help.....

[Jschmus]

I'm not sure of all of the technical reasons, but one of the primary ideas behind rotor-mast mounts is the ability for the helo to see from behind cover, say trees or a hill.  Otherwise sensors seem to be placed wherever there is space.  I know that placement on the very front reduces interference from the aircraft itself.

[Army of One]

Many thanks......I have a few Mi 28's....Revell and Italeri...these and a few others seem to be based on the prototye of late '80s early '90s.......ones in service now have a revised sensor suite.....I think Zvezda market it as a Mi 28N (?) certainly all the recent pics I have seen of Mi28's in service show different stuff around the nose......

[rickshaw]

The only rules are physical ones and they can be overcome if you're willing to expend time, money and effort.  

Nose mounted sights/sensors have the advantage that they are easy to produce, have few technical problems to overcome and can be directly linked optically into the cockpit.  They have the disadvantage in that the helicopter must expose most of itself for them to be used over obstacles, thereby exposing the chopper to danger from an adversary.  They are cheaper and easier to maintain.

Mast mounted sights/sensors are more difficult to produce.  You have to make the rotor-head strong enough to bear their weight and their counter-rotation (gyroscopic effects).   You have to create a system that rotates the mast equally to the rotation of the rotor.  Not difficult, just annoying and another thing that can go wrong.  They cannot be linked directly into the cockpit, they have to rely on optronic systems for the system to display an image/what it detects.   Their major advantage is that they ensure that the chopper doesn't have to expose itself to detect/attack a target.   They tend to be expensive and more difficult to maintain.

So, mast mounted sights/sensors are technically more difficult than nose mounted ones.  They confer advantages but their disadvantages can often outweigh them.

[Army of One]

Rickshaw..... ....I had read about benefits of MMS's......was thinking of some sort of roof mounted sight.....bit hard on the Mi 28....I will probably go for a more modern nose configuration.....many thanks for your input....very appreciated....H

[rickshaw]

Rickshaw..... ....I had read about benefits of MMS's......was thinking of some sort of roof mounted sight.....bit hard on the Mi 28....I will probably go for a more modern nose configuration.....many thanks for your input....very appreciated....H

Any time.  I've been studying military technology now for nearly 40 years so this stuff is pretty second nature to me.

[Army of One]

Ha!!! Seen and noted!!!! Expect PM's inbound.......joking.....might ask the odd question though if stuck while trying to perform the update.......H

[Weaver]

Another problem with MMS systems is vibration: can make them less precise, particulalry when using lasers, and can make the optics go out of true quicker. Roof-mounted sights have most of the advantages of nose-mounted and MMSs without most of the pain, but an attack helo pretty much has to be designed for them from the start, because you need some fixed roof space in front of the rotor mast. You also can't have direct optics on an attack helo unless you put the gunner in the back, and even then, you'd obstruct his forward vision quite a bit.

[Army of One]

Many thanks for the info....well appreciated.....H